


Against the Odds

by stanseba



Category: American (US) Actor RPF, Real Person Fiction
Genre: Age Difference, Alcohol, Anal Play, Dirty Talk, Emotional Hurt, Established Relationship, F/M, Falling In Love, First Time, Fluff, Oral Sex, Smut, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2019-10-16 12:35:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 68,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17549795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stanseba/pseuds/stanseba
Summary: They both have their hesitations - he’s always dated women his age, but lately hasn’t been able to maintain a relationship for longer than a year. When he meets Emilia, he decides to adjourn his dream of having a wife and children for a while and give it a try. Emilia, on the other hand, has never been in a relationship she’d consider serious and is afraid Chris will expect from her more than she can give him.





	1. We could drink to first impressions

"You know, I left my home country when I was 18. To be honest, I didn't get to spend much time with my family before that, because I attended boarding schools..." I explained and took a sip from the water cup next to me. 

"So, boarding schools are still a thing in the UK?" the interviewer asked. Oh, so she’s that kind of a person. 

"Well, yes. I mean, it was quite a few years ago, but I think they provide you with a friendly environment which allows you to both make friendships and study very hard. My parents didn't force me to go there, I really enjoyed that experience." 

She nodded at me and moved on to the nest question, as if my answer was boring. I have no idea what kind of exciting answer she was expecting. "So how do you feel about joining a huge franchise like Marvel?" 

"Well, I do love comic books and superhero movies, so it was like a dream come true. Not many actors get to experience something like that at such a young age and I'm grateful for the opportunity." I answered, hoping we were nearing the end of our little interview. 

She continued asking about Marvel, my future, living in the U.S., which brought us to the end.  
"So, today is also February 13th. Do you have any plans for tomorrow? A special someone to spend Valentine's Day with." She inquired. 

I sighed. "Not really, I'll probably just spend it with my cat or something." I don’t have a cat, by the way. 

 

Half an hour later I was at JFK, waiting at the end of the line to get on a plane to LA. Hannah has just phoned me about a party that’s organized right after my meeting at the studios. She said it was being thrown by one of the actors, but she couldn’t remember which one. “I’ll send you the email. Text me the answer before you board.” 

“Sure, so should I take some other clothes for the party? What should I wear for the meeting anyway? Should I do formal or more cas...” 

Before I could end my sentence, some guy bumped into me. I almost fell onto the next person in line, but the stranger grabbed me in a nearly theatrical gesture. “I am so sorry, ma'am... I should stop rushing like that.” 

“Hannah, let me call you back in a second.” I said and hung up immediately. 

The guy was wearing a cap and sunglasses. Indoors. “Well, I’m sure these accessories are not helping with your awareness of your surroundings, are they.” I snapped. “There’s still plenty of time before the take off, no need to rush like that.” 

I already was in a bad mood because of the early interview and the interviewer, so this guy just kind of made it worse. Maybe I shouldn’t have snapped like that, but he was the one who pushed me. 

Instead of calling Hannah, I just texted her. 

Sorry, some guy in line bumped into me. I’ll go to the party. Could you just prepare something for me to wear, so I can go to the studios straight from the airport? 

I knew she’d text me right back, so I just put my phone in my handbag. 

After I settled in my seat, I heard the now familiar voice talking on the phone, in the seat behind me. “Can you get red cups? And cold snacks? I want it to be like a real frat house... Dodger will be fine, he’s used to it...” 

“Sir, I’ve got to ask you to switch your phone off.” A stewardess asked. “Our Wi-fi connection will be available after take off.” 

“I’m so sorry.” He apologized. “Already switched off.” 

“Thank you.” 

What a twat, I thought. I’d rather spend the whole flight with crying twins flying couch than hear him again in first class. I found my earphones and sunk into my chair. My heaven... 

We landed in no time and I quickly found Hannah, waiting for me by the car. I hugged her. “Hi.” I whispered. “I had the worst day and it’s only 3 o'clock.” 

“I got you hot chocolate and a chocolate fudge cupcake.” She smiled. 

“I love youuu.” I whined. I looked over to my left and noticed the line guy entering a SUV car similar to mine. “That idiot made my day worse.” 

“People are animals.” 

I changed my clothes in the backseat while on the way to Burbank. “How long do you think the meeting will be? 

“You'll have enough time to eat something before you go to that party.” 

“Yesss, I'm already starving,” I said. “Who's gonna be there?” 

Hannah pulled out her phone and found the message. “Its organized by Chris Evans...” 

“The radio host?” I asked. 

“No, the actor who portrays Captain America, Anthony Mackie with his wife, Sebastian Stan...” 

“Oh, he’s cute.” I noted, midway through my cupcake. 

“Emily VanCamp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Scarlett Johansson, Cobie Smulders, Hayley Atwell. And some other people.” 

The meeting at Marvel Studios was about discussing Wanda's costumes, movements and overall some aspects of the character. I also scheduled some appointments with trainers, voice coaches and such. I had some fittings of prototypes, make up tests and hair styles. 

After 2 hours of talking, signing and scheduling, we finally got out and went to get something to eat. “I’d really love a hamburger now, but I'm afraid of an acne break out. Hannah, why is acne such a bitch?” 

Hannah's is my agent. She’s nearly 40 years old, but also my best friend. We’ve been working together since I moved here and she’s been like a mum to me, when my actual mum couldn't be. And it also helps, that my mum actually likes her. So I have a Mom and a Mum. 

“You should eat something before the party, though. You can’t drink on an empty stomach.” She suggested. 

“Excuse me,” I said. “Who said I'm even going to drink?” 

She gave me that really? look. “No, I’m serious. Do I really drink so often that you have to point that out? I can have fun without alcohol, you know. I’m not going to drink tonight.” 

She just laughed at me and pulled towards a small Italian place, where I ordered a lasagne and lemonade. “Do you think I'm reckless?” 

Hannah sighed. “Emily, I really didn’t mean it. I mean that you might not like the food at the party or that they might even not have anything sustaining. You are one of the most responsible people I know. And you’re 22.” 

“Still 21.” I corrected her. I hate the thought of becoming older and older, so since my 18th birthday every birthday has become just more and more depressing. 

I didn’t get too dressed up for the party. I thought that a black off shoulder top and jeans would do. I did wear high heels and some make up, but that’s just to make sure I look my best around my new cast mates. 

The only other invited guest I knew was Aaron, with whom I’ve already had the pleasure to film a post-credits scene for Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I was hoping he was there already, so I would have someone to talk to. 

I texted him, when my car went through the gate, and told him to meet me outside. 

“Got a little shy, all of a sudden?” he grinned as I escaped the car. 

“Look, I’m not about to enter a house full of movie stars in their mid-thirties by myself, ok?” I laughed and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Do you think it was a good idea to bring a gift for the host?” 

“Depends on what it is.” 

“A pretty expensive scotch. Straight from actual Scotland.” I held up the bottle, wrapped in a Captain America gift wrapping paper. 

“Perfect. Hope he'll open it tonight.” Aaron smiled. “Let's go, love.” He opened the door for me and I immediately heard music, chatter and laughter. “Guys, look who I found!” he yelled through the noise. 

All of the people turned around to look at us. I was grateful for the little research I did, because I didn’t have to awkwardly ask who everyone was. “Finally, our newest addition!” Evans cheered and I immediately recognized his voice. I also noticed the backwards cap on his head and red cups around me. 

“Oh my God, are you the guy who almost tackled me down in New York today?” I asked, completely stunned. 

To be honest, now that I’ve taken a better look at him, I wouldn’t have minded him tackling me down. Even in public. 

“He was just telling me that he was hoping you wouldn’t recognize him.” Sebastian laughed. 

“I did say sorry.” He held his hands in defeat. “And I was in rush. Anyway, I’m Chris.” 

“Well, you can’t rush a plane to a earlier take off. I’m Emily.” I shook his hand and smiled. God, he’s handsome. I held out the whisky bottle. “I brought it as a gift for the host, but I’m not sure you deserve it now that I know who you are.” 

He smirked. “That’s a shame, I thought we could drink to first impressions.” 

It took me about an hour to get to know most of the people here. I spent most of the time with Hayley and Aaron, which was pointed out to us. “You three here are forming some sort of British alliance, aren’t ya?” Anthony yelled. He was quite tipsy at the very least. I didn’t mind that. It was probably the first “Hollywood” house party I’ve been to and it was much better than stuck up events I’ve been to. 

I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, so I checked the caller. Mum. “I’m sorry, I have to take this.” 

I decided to go outside and sat on the furniture on the terrace. “Hi, Mum. What’s up?” 

“Honey, I’m sorry. I know you’re out, but... I have to talk to you.” She sighed. “You know your dad and I haven’t been in the best place lately and...” 

I did and I knew where this was going. “Mum, I know what you’re about to say. And I you really want to say it right now, please don’t. Please, I can’t talk about this right now. It’s not the place nor the time. Can I call you tomorrow?” 

She agreed. They always do that. I love my parents, but their timing is terrible. 

“Mind if I join you?” I heard Chris' voice behind me. “Is everything alright?” 

I looked up from my phone. “It’s just family business, you know. Nothing unusual.” I shrugged and let out a nervous laugh. 

I’ve gotten really good at holding up tears. During my first year here I missed my family so much I cried every time I saw something family-related around me. I had to learn how to not show everything that’s going on inside my head. “My mum's just called me and she wanted to tell me that they’re divorcing, but it’s... nothing I haven’t noticed.” 

“Families can be tough, I get that.” He agreed. “Maybe you want me to get you a ride home?” 

“No, thank you. Being around people will help me forget about it.” I smiled faintly. 

“Then how about I fix you that drink after all?” he suggested, stood up and held out his hand for me. 

I nodded. 

He guided me to the kitchen, where I sat on the counter, while Chris prepared a drink for me. “I can make something with that Scotch you brought, if you want.” 

“Had my dad heard that you wanted to make a drink out of his favourite alcohol he would be livid. And should I add that bit about harassing his youngest daughter...” 

He laughed. “Again, I am so sorry.” He apologized. “I feel like you’re just going to torture me till the end of time. What can I do to make this right?” 

“I don’t know, you have to think of something.” I shrugged and took the drink he made me. 

Chris smiled and leaned on the counter next to me. I couldn’t not look at his bicep as he brought the glass to his lips. “What would you say to a date?” 

I looked at his face, as Chris turned to face me. He seemed a little bit nervous. “I mean... Only if you promise to keep your balance.” I smiled. 

“Great,” he grinned. “How about tomorrow?” 

I did remember that tomorrow was Valentine's Day. “You know that it’s February the 14th tomorrow, right?” 

Chris shrugged. “Well, isn’t it the best day for a date?” 

“Can’t argue with that.” 

“Whatcha doing, my little lovebirds?” I heard Scott's voice. 

“Just chillin...” I said, taking a sip of my drink. “Getting to know my fellow Avenger.” 

Scott stayed with me while Chris left to say goodbye to some of the guests. We chatted for some time and went to the living room, where a few of the remaining guests were sitting on the sofas. “I really don’t wanna go, because the next time we see each other is gonna be in May or June…” Scarlett said. “And it was incredibly nice meeting you, Emily.” She turned to me and we hugged. I walked her to the door and we discussed when we’d get to film together. “Emily, I can bet you a weekend in SPA that by the time we see each other again, you will be a few months into dating Evans.” She smiled. “I’ve known him for so long, I know it’s gonna happen.” 

I looked over at Chris, who was now laughing at something with Sebastian and Anthony. “I mean, we are going out tomorrow...” 

“You can book that weekend for me already,” she grinned. “Look, he’s mostly dated women his age and it didn’t work out. I mean, that last girl... He went through so much with her and they broke up just 2 months ago. In my opinion, he should have ended it years ago.” She sighed. “Anyway, if you’re ok with it, then...” 

“ScarJoooo,” Chris’ voice. “Are you leaving me already!?” 

“You know I hate it, when people call me that. And yes, I’m leaving, because my husband is waiting for me.” 

“You’re no fun.” He complained and put his arm around my shoulders. I think he was a little bit tipsy now and a bit more confident since I’ve already agreed to the date. “I’ve got a new friend now.” 

“I told you he would be snuggling against poor Emily before the night ends.” Anthony yelled as he was us. “Evans, keep it in your pants or she will run away!” 

“God, I hate them.” 

An hour later it was just me, Chris, Scott, Sebastian and Anthony. We were sitting around the coffee table. They asked me a lot of questions since I was new, British and the only girl there. Sebastian was drunk enough to ask me if child birth is really more painful than a kick in the balls. Dodger, Chris' dog joined us after a while and chose to lay down next to me, which made Chris a bit upset. “I knew he would leave me for a girl someday. Not cool, buddy, not cool.” I stroked the dog's incredibly soft, ginger fur and listened to their conversations. I really didn't want to leave – Hannah couldn't stay with me tonight, so the moment I'd step into my empty flat I'd momentarily think about my partners’ break up. 

We all stood up when Sebastian, Scott and Anthony said they’d be leaving. I got kind of anxious and hoped they’d want to stay longer. “Hey, how about we take Dodger for a walk and then come back to watch a movie?” Chris said quietly as the others were chatting in the doorway. “It's still early.” 

“I don’t know, Chris... I...” 

He bent down right next to his pup and said. “How could you say no to those eyes?” 

Well, I couldn’t say no to neither Chris' nor Dodgers eyes, so it was an easy decision to make. “Fine.” 

I tried to avoid questions from the guys by saying that my agent is picking me up and she’s running late. They made some jokes, but bought it and we were walking around the neighbourhood in no time. “So do you want to talk about your parents now?” Chris inquired. 

“Well, to be honest, it shouldn’t be a big deal for me. I’m a grown woman,” I started. “A year ago I noticed that my parents started to act different. They used to be very expressive in feelings towards each other and then it just stopped. So I asked them if everything was alright and they’d say that everything’s fine. Multiple times, so I dropped it.” I sighed. “When she called me today I knew why. I told her I’d be out and she never calls me when I tell her that.” 

I shivered a little bit, when we turned right to the park. Chris immediately took off his sweater and handed it to me. “Look, I went through the same thing. My parents got divorced when I was 18. It didn’t get ugly and messy, but it was still hard for the family. You know, me and my sisters were already a bit more independent, they were in New York, I was about to graduate high school. But Scott had a hard time processing all of this.” 

I pulled his sweater over my head and discreetly inhaled his scent. Sweet heavens. “I'm gonna be the Scott I’m my family.” I sighed and watched Dodger play around with a ball. “I’ve got two older brothers and they’ve always been overprotective of me, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I had a million text messages on my phone right now.” I pulled it out. “I switched it off after mum called.” 

“You know, you got me a bit scared with those two overprotective brothers of yours.” Chris chuckled and whistled at Dodger. 

“I won’t tell on you if you let me choose the movie.” I said. “I feel like watching Scary Movie.” 

“I was gonna let you choose anyway, but if that gets me out of trouble.” 

Back at his house, Chris let Dodger off the leash and the dog claimed his spot on the sofa immediately. “Do you want something to drink? Or eat?” 

I sat on the stool by the kitchen island. “Do you have hot chocolate?” 

Chris looked up at me and smiled. “And a pizza?” 

He’s perfect, I thought and nodded. 

We were bringing snacks and drinks to the living room when I realized, “You know, we discussed divorces and our parents, but we still know nothing about each other.” So we played 21 questions, while the movie played in the background. We started off with some safe questions. 

“What is the best movie you've filmed?” Chris asked. 

“Well, I filmed Cinderella last year, so...” 

“You're Cinderella!?” he didn’t even let me finish. 

“Yeah, the movie comes out in 2015.” 

It turned out that Chris is a big fan of Disney and was incredibly excited to be going on a date with an actual Disney princess. “Oh my God, that is surreal. I’m finally gonna be a hero to my niece.” 

“How many nephews do you have?” I asked. 

“I have two nephews and one niece. They’re all under 5 years old, so when we’re all together with other members of the family, it gets incredibly messy.” He scrolled though his gallery to show me a photo of his laying on the floor with three children laid all over him, with Dodger standing next to them. 

He had so many photos of them I got kind of scared. What if he wants to have children soon? I mean, I’ve known him or a few hours, but is it worth wasting my time if he asks me to have his child in a year? I definitely won’t want one in a year. Or in two years. Or three. 

“I have two nephews. Both by my oldest brother. And they’re just too spoiled for me. I like children in general, but they are a pure nightmare.” I smiled. It was a small test. If he says they might not me as bad as I think they are, we will have a problem. 

“I get it. Some kids are just real dicks.” He shrugged. “Worst breakup?” 

I finished my drink and pretended to give it a thought. “I don’t think I’ve ever had one. I’ve never been in a relationship serious enough to consider the breakup ‘ugly'.” I sighed. “What about you?” 

“Last year. We had some different approach to how we wanted to live our lives and had difficulties synching our schedules.” He explained. 

“Live your lives?” 

“She would call paps on us and stuff. She hasn’t been very successful as an actress, so this was the most publicity she could get.” 

“Oh, ok.” I felt a bit bad for inquiring. “How about your first kiss?” 

“Oh my God. I was 16 and I’m still shocked that the girl didn't just kick me in the balls. Too. Much. Tongue. I was awful.” 

I couldn’t imagine Chris being bad at something. He’s definitely a pro now. “Mine was when I was 19. I was already in acting, but came back to my parents’ house for some time off. I threw a party for a few of my friends, but my former best friend brought her boyfriend’s friends. One of them was incredibly nice to me throughout the evening and we ended up making out the couch after everyone left. One thing he failed to mention was that the girl, who left 20 minutes before was his girlfriend.” 

Chris was shocked. “What a dick.” He said. “Men are pigs.” 

“Yeah, can’t believe I wasted my first kiss on him.” Well, I didn’t only waste my first kiss on him, but that’s not a conversation were going to have right now. “If you have bad experiences from dating actresses, why won’t you try dating outside of business?” 

He smiled. “Well, only people from the business can understand moving to a filming location for a few weeks, kissing other people or rubbing yourselves against them.” 

I nodded. “True. I get that it’s hard to understand, but that’s the job.” 

I never thought I’d be able to talk so comfortably with someone 11 years older than me. I always thought it’s just different life experiences, different life phases, but it hasn’t been the case so far. 

At some point we finally started to pay attention to the movie, but turned out I wasn’t interested at all and passed out on Chris' shoulder. 

Imagine my shock, when I woke up, still on the couch, with my arms tangled around Chris' torso, with a blanket over us. Oh my God. 

I lifted my head to see that Chris was still asleep. As slowly as I could, I sat up to see Dodger sitting by his leash, waving his tail enthusiastically with his mouth open. It must be way past his morning walk time. I looked at Chris as he just readjusted his sleeping position. 

Well, I guess I have a dog now. I went to the bathroom to check if my make up wasn’t smudged. I found the cap Chris wore at the airport yesterday, put it on and let Dodger out. I had no problem hooking the leash to his collar and we went out to the street. He was at my side all the time, until I let him off the leash in the park and sat on the bench. 

I was a little bit worried that someone would recognize Dodger and let the media know that a new girl I walking Chris’ dog. And she’s definitely not a dog walker, because no professional dog walker would wear high heels while on the job. I felt like I should be embarrassed, but I wasn’t. Should I be? I mean, we didn’t do anything wrong, my make up wasn't touched at all and my clothes were all in order. We just fell asleep on the sofa together. 

Dodger brought me a stick he found. I took it from him and threw it as far as I could. I played with him for a little and decided to go back. 

Chris was already up, showered and changed. “I thought you were mad at me and stole my dog.” He joked. “You want coffee?” 

“No, thank you. I don’t drink coffee.” I smiled. “You thought I stole your dog, but left my bag?” 

He's just noticed it on a chair. “Oh, right.” He handed me a glass of water. “Ok, so I can make you a breakfast or... I can drive you to yours, you’ll get ready and then I can take you out. 

“You don’t want people to see you with me wearing yesterday’s outfit and barely there make up?” I lifted my eyebrow. 

“You look incredible and being seen with you in any state will be an honour to me, but I know where we're going and you wouldn't want to go there in these shoes on.” He grinned. 

“Chris, if this is something sport's related, I’m leaving now. With my bag and Dodger.” 

“It's not sports related, there might be a bit of walking involved.” He teased. 

I chose the second option and we were on the road in no time. I gave Chris directions to my flat. He lived in Studio City while I had a place in the centre. 

“So you live in LA?” Chris asked, when a red light stopped him. 

“No, I just come here for work and meetings. I also have a place in New York and I’m there most of the time.” I explained. “I don’t really like LA, to be honest. I haven’t been around for too long, but I get recognized a lot all the time here, especially since it’s been announced that I’m joining the MCU. It’s nice, but sometimes you just need a little more privacy in public.” 

“I get that. I mean, I got used to it, but I still wear the cap and sunglasses and hope less people recognize me.” He sighed. “Do you think people recognize you less in New York?” 

“Well, out of three cities I’ve lived in, the least people come up to me in New York. It’s the worst in London, because I was on both The Tudors and Downton Abbey. In LA, people are more forward and demanding. In NY, people are just too busy minding their own business to stop and ask for a photograph.” 

We reached my flat and I immediately went to the shower while Chris sat on the sofa and turned the TV on. 

After the shower I stood in front of the mirror for a while. It’s a date. What should I wear then? Should I wear make up? I should follow his lead and copy his outfit. 

So I wore jeans, a yellow sweater and a denim jacket just in case. I dug also out my cleanest Adidas trainers. After deciding that the shadows under my eyes weren’t that visible today, I only put on some mascara and brushed my eyebrows. Done. 

I went back to the living room where Chris was looking through a comic book. He noticed me and smiled. “You look great. That huge bag isn’t necessary, though.” He pointed at my handbag. 

“I’m gonna leave it in your boot, if that’s ok.” I said and moved towards the door. 

“In my what?” he stood up, confused. 

“In your trunk, Yankee.” I smirked. 

I didn’t know much of Los Angeles, so I couldn’t work out where we were going and Chris refused to tell me. “It's a surprise, you’re gonna love it.” 

“You’ve known me for less than 24 hours, how do you know I’m gonna love it?” I raised my eyebrow. 

“Actually, it’s more than 24 hours now. I bumped into you 26 hours ago.” He corrected me. 

“Creep.” I laughed. “Oh my God, we're going to Disneyland.” 

He furrowed his eyebrows and looked at me. “Ok, how did you know that?” 

“You said I’m gonna love it, probably because I loved playing Cinderella. You love Disney, I do too. There’s gonna be a lot of walking. Also, there was a sign, we’re 5 minutes away.” I explained and smiled. 

“Outrageous...” He sighed. “ Way to ruin a surprise.” 

As Chris parked I put on my sunglasses and he followed me by doing the same thing a adding a cap. “Just in case, it’s the middle of the week, barely after 12pm, it just can’t be crowded.” 

Well, it was. Who would've thought that Disneyland is an excellent destination on a Valentine’s Day? I didn’t want to say anything out loud, because I knew Chris was very excited. It turned out that he bought tickets while I was taking a shower. I'm surprised he doesn't have an annual pass. 

I couldn't believe how a 32 year old man turned into an 8 year old so fast. He literally took my hand the moment we got in and pulled towards the nearest ride. To be honest, I was more focused on the fact, that his hand was gripping mine even when we were in the queue. I didn’t mind it, but someone has already given us a second look when they saw Chris. His strategy was to ignore everyone until they actually approach him. 

Chris started to talk about all the rides we were gonna go to. “Do you remember the names of all rides?” I laughed. 

“Probably, I come here all the time with my nephews.” He explained. “I’m not just some creep who hangs around Disneyland alone.” 

“No, you’re more than that.” I joked. 

“When was the last time you went to Disneyland?” he asked. 

“I think it was like 10 years ago, but in Paris.” 

“10 years without the happiest place on the planet. Oh my God. We're here until they’re closed.” 

I hope he was only joking, because I was a bit nauseous only after three rides. “Can we go on the less speedy ones now?” I asked. 

“I mean, I should just say you’re weak, at this point.” He laughed. “But I don’t want you to throw up on me during our first date.” 

“Oh, that would be fun.” I grinned. 

“Definitely, “ Chris looked around. “How about we go eat something now?” 

I nodded and followed him to a restaurant. We seemed to be a little underdressed there, but a waiter soon walked us to a secluded area, where we would have some privacy and no one else would see us. 

“There you go, Ms. Dawson.” He handed me menu. “Mr. Evans. I’ll be back soon to take your orders.” 

“Thank you,” I smiled. “How does he know our names?” I asked Chris. 

“Well, the reservation is under my name, but I didn’t give him yours, so I guess he’s a fan.” He shrugged. 

I scanned the card, hoping to find something with chicken or with no meat at all. “I fell like you had to make that reservation like a month ago.” I said. The other, less intimate, part of the restaurant was packed. 

He smiled. “I do come here a lot, so they may have made an exception for me. And I always take a selfie with their manager. Anyway, if I may suggest – they make excellent fish and orecchiette pasta.” 

I ordered whatever Chris recommended me. He ordered a lot of side dishes and it had me think whether he thought I could eat that much or it was only for him. “May I suggest some wine?” 

“Well, I’m driving,” Chris answered. “Emily?” 

“Something semi sweet, perhaps.” I smiled and gave him my card back. “I’ll trust you on this one.” 

“Thank you, I’ll choose something suitable.” 

Chris kept looking at me as the waiter left our table. “Is there something on my face?” I asked. 

He grinned. “No, you just ordered what I recommended you and relayed on him to get you a good wine.” 

“I’m not very problematic or sophisticated. Just two or three years ago I was still drinking wine drinks from the nearest grocery shop instead of actual wine, because I saw no difference. Besides, I’ve seen their prices per bottle and it just can’t be bad.” I shrugged. “Oh, and don’t you dare think that you’ll pay for all of this. You paid for the entrance, I’m paying for food.” 

Chris raised his eyebrow. “We'll see about that.” 

“Christopher...” I started. “Wait, are you Chris or Christopher? Do you have middle name? I wanted to say your full name, but I don’t know it.” 

He just shrugged, grinning like a Cheshire cat. “Guess you’re gonna have to Google me or something.” 

I didn’t give up. I pulled my phone out just to discover it was still switched off. “Oh my God.” I froze. 

“What's wrong?” Chris asked, a worried look on his face. 

“I switched my phone off after talking to my mum yesterday and I haven’t turned it on since.” I answered, horrified. “They’re gonna kill me.” 

After the screen light up I got a countless number of notifications: missed calls, texts, FaceTime calls, Skype calls, Facebook messages, WhatsApp messages. Everything. “They’re gonna strangle me. Wait... it’s 4:30 here, so it's 12:30am in London.” 

“Go, call them.” Chris said. “They’re probably worried.” 

I looked up at him. He’s such a good guy. “No, it’s fine. I’ll just text my brother. He’s definitely still up.” 

“I’m sorry I haven’t picked up your calls, I switched my phone off and forgot to switch it on again until just now. I don’t feel like talking to neither Mum or Dad. I’ll book a flight back to the UK and come later this week. I wish they had decided to tell me about the divorce last month, when I was there and not when I’m on the other side of the globe, at a party.” 

“Done, it’s been dealt with. I’m gonna get the shit beaten out of me when they see me.” I smiled. “Anyway, I’m sorry.” 

“It’s no big deal.” He assured me. 

We decided not to talk about anything negative right now and moved on to talking about filming Avengers: Age of Ultron. After we realized that we haven’t even swapped numbers and had no way of sharing each other’s calendars, we did so. I also friended him on Facebook. You know, just in case. 

Our food arrived and we dug into our plates. The food was delicious and the wine was very well selected. I couldn’t stop eating until I’ve finished my meal. Then Chris told me to eat the sides and suggested what goes well with what. He moved to sit right next to me and we talked about comics and movies. I had no idea that a movie he directed could premiere at TIFF this year. 

“Yeah, if I'm honest I'm scared shitless, but it's all sealed already.” He admitted and ate a shrimp. 

“I'm sure they will choose it and it will do well.” I said and, without reconsidering, took his hand. It was that moment. We started to lean each other’s ways. As our noses brushed against each other, Chris whispered: “Emily, I’ve been waiting for this for the whole day.” 

“Mhm...” I murmured. 

“And while I’d like nothing more but to just move those 2 inches and kiss you... I wanted to do this at a certain point this evening.” He explained. “You’ll know when.” 

“Ok.” I’m gonna die. 

Somehow, he managed to pay for the meal without even leaving the table. Because we decided we should have a picnic now, I went to buy sweets and a blanket, which featured Mickey and Minnie. We found a quiet spot, behind most people in the park. “Are we waiting for something?” I asked. 

“I’m waiting for you to eat all these cupcakes.” He joked, looking at my stuffed mouth. 

“I hope that’s not a bet, because you will loose.” I snapped back. 

It was getting completely dark. I laid down and looked at the stars that started to appear on the sky. More people gathered on the grass around us as well as on the benches. I was sure that something was supposed to happen here, but I also knew Chris wouldn’t tell me if I asked. He laid down next to me, took my hand and brought it to his lips. I felt shivers on my arm as he pressed his lips against my skin. 

“I really enjoyed today,” he whispered. “And yesterday.” 

I turned to face him. “Me too,” I smiled. “But it might just be this place...” 

A moment later I realized why Chris wanted to wait for the kiss and why people were gathering around us. It was time for a special Valentine’s Day firework display. “Oh my God...” 

I turned to Chris, who almost immediately pressed his lips against mine. After the initial shock, I open my mouth slightly. Chris' tongue slips inside my mouth gently as his hand cups my cheek. Our tongues tangled together is like nothing I've ever experienced. I move my fingers to run through his hair, as Chris gently pushes me to lay down. We’re making out, laying on a Mickey Mouse blanket in Disneyland. 

“Chris, they’re going to arrest us for public indecency or something...” I whispered, breaking the kiss for a second. Our lips connected again almost with hunger. 

“I really don’t give a fuck right now.” he answered breathing heavily against my lips. “I don’t even know if it’s the fireworks or my heart.” 

I’m sure the firework display was incredible. I didn’t get to see much of it, but I'm sure it was.


	2. You tire me out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emily doesn't solve the family problems while in London and goes back to Chris, who's tries to always be beside her. He wants to make everything right for her.

„I miss you.” I whispered, as Dodger appeared on the screen.  

„Oh, and what about me?” Chris furrowed his eyebrows sticking his head out, because Dodger was covering him. „How is your family?”   

I scratched the back of my head before I even knew what to say. „It's been... difficult. My dad's moved out to a rented flat. I’m home alone at the moment, because my mum started working late. I’ve been here for 5 days now and we haven’t even had a proper discussion about what’s going on and how it’s going to be. My dad wants to come over today.” I explained. „It's definitely not going to get ugly, but the communication is so shit that I’m afraid that one time I’ll come back here to a sold house.”  

„It could've been worse, Emily.” Chris said. „I’m sure that the only reason why they keep having secrets is because they think that as adults, you and your brothers have your own problems.” He continued to explain.  

„I don’t know...” When I came back home, I immediately noticed that out family photos have been taken off the walls. Our home looked like a show house. I’ve barely spoken to anyone, because they seemed to be avoiding me. It didn’t seem like it when they called me a million times on Valentine’s Day. I tried to be understanding – my brothers have their lives and jobs, so they didn’t have time to visit every time I did. Maybe my parents needed more time. “To be honest, it’s the first time even when I actually can’t wait until I can leave.”  

“To be honest, you can leave anytime,” Chris shrugged. “Aaaand, go to Florida with me.” he suggested.  

“Florida?”   

“Yeah, I’m going to be the Grand Marshall during this year’s Daytona 500. I’m going there on Saturday morning until Sunday night. We can spend the two days together before you go back to New York and I go to LA.” he suggested. “We have to make the best of what we’ve got, right?”  

He was right. I was wasting my time here. No one wanted to talk to me about our family issues even thought I flew half the globe to do that. I had a real chance of entering a promising relationship and I should make as much time for Chris as I could. “You know what? I’m going to drive to my father’s flat and if I he doesn’t tell me what they’re planning, I’m going back to the US.”  

“Em, I didn’t mean to run away from the problem...” he sighed.  

“I’m not running away, Chris. They are. I’ve been here since February 15th. I’m in the same house as my Mum and she managed to get away from talking about their divorce, my dad has only picked his phone up once and my brothers haven’t even picked it up once.” I explained.  

Chris nodded. “Fine, you’re right. I give up. I mean, the sooner you get this over with, the faster you come back to me, right?” He smiled widely. “I miss you.”  

 _“Passengers flying to London Heathrow – please go to gate 4.” a woman’s voice echoed at the airport._  

 _“You have no idea how much I enjoyed the last 48 hours.” Chris whispered against my lips as we tried to say our goodbyes. “I’m gonna miss you, Emily.”_  

 _I looked him in the eyes, stroking the back of his neck. “Me too. I wish you could come with me. We shouldn’t spend so much time apart at such an early part of a...”_  

 _Chris grinned. “... a relationship.” And pressed his lips against mine again._   

“I miss you, too, Evans.” I whispered. “I’ll let you know when I’m coming back, ok?”   

He nodded. “Em, one more thing – have you, by any chance, seen the sweater I gave you when we were walking Dodger?”  

I grinned widely and reached to my bag. “I have it here and you’re not getting it back, honey.” I showed him the black sweater. It was so soft and nice, I decided to  _forget_  that I had it.  

“It's fine. I hope it keeps you warm in cold London.” Chris smiled. “I actually have to go to a meeting. Text me whenever you want, I’ll call you when I’m done.”  

“Ok, bye.” I waved at the camera.   

I was hoping that we wouldn’t have to end this conversation too soon,  because it meant that I had to go visit my dad. I looked down at Chris’ sweater and decided to wear it. It still smelled like him and that made me feel so much better. And it didn’t look bad on me.  

The only problem I had, was that I didn’t have my dad’s new address, so I had a little look around the house. As I suspected, I found it on some documents in the study. It was around a 30 minute drive from here plus traffic. “At least I can make a stop at McDonald's.” I murmured to myself.  

I got into a rental car and put the address into the sat nav. I chose a very bad timing, because the traffic was a nightmare. But coffee and fries made it much more bearable.   

I was very surprised, when I arrived at the building. It was very modern and I knew my dad wasn’t a fan of such style, but maybe he chose whatever was available. I got lucky, because someone was leaving and I got through the gate. I quickly found his flat number and rang the bell.   

Imagine my shocked face, when a woman, around my brothers’ age opened the door. “Hello,” she smiled. “May I help you?”  

“Ummm, sorry... Does David Dawson live here?” I asked.  

“Oh, yes,” she nodded. “David, darling, can you come here?”   

At this moment I just started to think how I’m going to react if my father actually comes out. I still had hope that it wasn’t him, that it was just a mistake. But I wasn’t at all prepared to face what appeared before me. “Dad?”  

He was standing there with a baby in his arms. It couldn’t be older than 6 months. Neither of us knew what to say. Actually, I did. “Fuck you.” I snapped.  

“Emily...” he started, but I was already on my way out. I didn’t want to listen. I was ready to listen for a year and I couldn’t give a fuck right now.  

I started the car and waited a while. It seemed so surreal. My dad had a baby by another woman. He’s 51 and she’s, what, 30 at most!?.   

My phone connected to the car via Bluetooth and I dialled Chris' number. He picked up after a few seconds.  

“Emily, I’m in between meetings...” he started.  

“I’m coming back tonight.” I said. “I’m going home to pack and then to the airport. I’ll take the next flight to NY or Daytona.”  

“Ok, slow down.” He tried to calm me down. “What happened?”  

It was the moment tears began to pool in my eyes and I couldn’t even say one word. “He... My dad cheated on my mum... and now he lives with some woman... with whom he has a baby.”   

“Oh God.” He whispered.   

“Yeah, I know.”   

“Look, it will take me an hour to be finished here, ok? Let me know when you know where you’ll be flying, I’ll go there too, ok? New York, Florida, whatever. Just don’t talk on the phone, cry and drive. Pull over, calm down and then continue. Text me when you’re home and when you leave.”   

I did all he asked me to. The way he got concerned about my situation and safety gave some positive feeling and I stopped crying. I continued the drive when I could finally see again. How could they keep something like that from me? How long have they kept that a secret? Did everyone know? Why wouldn’t they tell me? I’m sure I wouldn’t have reacted half as bad as I did today.   

“Mum!” I yelled as I entered home. The lights were on, so I knew she was home. “For fuck's sake, Mum!!”   

She ran down the stairs. “What? What happened?” She asked in panic.  

“How long have you known?” I snapped. She knew what I was talking about. She probably feared the moment I’d find out myself. “How long have you known that dad cheated on you and got her pregnant!?”  

“January last year.” She said. “He told me he had an affair, that she got pregnant.”   

I looked up at the ceiling. “Oh my God. You went through the whole pregnancy with them.” I couldn't believe it. “Who else knew? When did Max and Matt find out?”  

“6 months ago.” She whispered.  

I can’t believe it. They kept an affair and a baby a secret for over a year. And then for 6 months they kept it from me. “Wow. You pretended to be a normal, loving married couple for a year, only when I was here?”   

“We knew you were homesick, we wanted you to be able to come back to normal house...”  

“But it wasn’t normal! You only pretended it was! How is this different from my job!?” I screamed. “I’ve had enough. I’m leaving.”   

She tried to talk me out of it, but I didn’t want to listen. I couldn’t believe, how a whole family – mother, father, brothers, their wives, could just lie to me for such a long time, about something so important. I packed the stuff I needed and simply left the house.   

I returned the car at the airport and rushed inside. “Hi, I need a ticket on the nearest flight to Daytona. Any class.”  

The woman nodded and put the information into her computer. “Ummm... I can get you a first class flight with connection in New York."

“Oh, I’ll take just the London-New York ticket."

“I’ll take it.” I said. She took my info, I paid and left to call Chris. “Chris, I’m leaving to NY in less than an hour. Do you think you could fly there, too? You could stay at mine.”  

He agreed. “Are you ok now?” he asked.   

“Yeah, I yelled at my mum so I got some pressure off of me.” I sighed. “I’ll get better after I get some sleep on the plane.”   

“Just not too much, so you don’t mess up your sleep schedule.” Chris said. “I’ll try my best too!”  

I decided to sleep through a half of my flight and then watch something. I got my family totally off my mind. Even when I was already at JFK, waiting for Chris, I was just listening to music and not thinking about anything difficult or sad. I blocked my family’s calls and messages. I bought myself most of chocolate food JFK had to offer.   

“Can’t wait to eat it with you.” I heard Chris’ voice behind me.   

I was so happy. I got up and jumped on Chris, making him drop his bag. I found his lips immediately, as they gave me comfort and confidence I needed right now. “I’ve missed you so much.” I whispered against his lips. “It was the worst day of my life.”   

Chris put his forehead against mine. “I’m here now, ok? We'll talk about it when you’re ready. We have to go now, paps know I was on that flight and they're probably waiting outside.”   

I nodded in agreement and whispered. “Ok.”  

“Did you call for a car?” he asked. I shook my head. “Ok, I’ll do it.”  

I suddenly felt so bad about the fact, that he had to take care of everything. He was an angel.  

10 minutes later the car was waiting for us and we left the airport, accompanied by a few photographers. They tried to ask some questions, but we weren’t very talkative.  

“Emily, Chris, are you together? Are you dating?”  

“How long has this been going on?”   

The sound of their cameras and flashes only made my headache worse. “I wonder how much people who tip them off make.” I whispered as Chris put our bags in the boot.  

“Clearly, enough.” He answered. “Come on, let’s get outta here.” He opened the door for me and shielded me from the cameras. “We lasted a week without people finding out.” Chris sighed after closing the door.  

“Actually, no,” I found my phone and scanned through my emails. I found the one Hannah sent me, when I was in London. “A few people photographed us in Disneyland and there's one video of us making out during the fireworks, but the media didn’t catch anything.”   

He scrolled through the message. “Wow, we were really going for it.” Chris smirked.   

I told the driver my address and I moved to lean against Chris. “I’m glad that today's over.” I whispered.   

Chris pressed a kiss against my head. “You need to get some more sleep,” he said. “We can sleep in tomorrow.”   

I intertwined our fingers and pressed my cheek against his bicep. “I feel so much better now that you’re here with me.”   

Chris squeezed my hand. “I’m happy to hear that.”  

I must have fallen asleep right after that, because the next thing I remember is opening my eyes to the similar sight of my street. “We're here, baby.” Chris' voice woke me up. It was the first time he had called me “baby”. I enjoyed it.  

Chris took our bags and I follower him with my backpack and the bag of sweets. “Chris, I do need to warm you – I don’t think I have any food in the fridge.” I said as I dug out my keys.  

“I think the brownies and cupcakes will do.” He smiled. “I had a meal on the plane.”   

As we entered my flat, Chris looked around. I think he was expecting something smaller. I had a large, open space living room with a kitchen and a bedroom closed with tall doors. One bathroom connected to the living room and another ensuite.  

“I just hope I haven’t left anything in the fridge that could make it smell like death.” I joked.  

Chris put our stuff in the bedroom. “Don’t worry about it now, we should just go to bed.” He said and came over to me. “You fell asleep immediately on the way here and you cried a lot today. We don’t need to talk about it now, but I can see that you’re incredibly tired.”  

I smiled faintly. He’s such a sweetheart. I wrapped my arms around his neck and let him pick me up. “You are an incredible human being, Christopher.” I whispered and pressed a kiss to his shoulder. “I like you very, very, very much.”  

“I like you very, very, very much.” He answered. “Do you want to go to bed or the bathroom?”   

“I wanna go to bed, but I need to go to the bathroom.” I murmured. So he brought me to the bathroom, where I got ready to go to bed.  

I changed into my pyjamas, washed my face, put moisturizer on and washed my teeth. It was the second time we were spending the night together, but for the first time we knew we would be sleeping together.   

I left the bathroom to see Chris on my bed, with a laptop on his lap and sweets in the middle. He looked up and smiled immediately. “That's some cute PJ's.” He commented. “Although I would choose puppies over kittens.”   

I was wearing shorts and a tank top with two ginger kittens on it. “Can’t wait to see yours.” I said and joined him on the bed.   

“It’s just a t-shirt and boxers, nothing too fanceeeey.” He answered, not taking his eyes off the monitor. “Give me 10 minutes and I’ll be done.”   

“Mhm,” I nodded with my mouth full of a chocolate cupcake. “Can’t wait.” Chris grinned. As I laid my head on the pillow and unlocked my phone, he put his hand on my head and tucked my hair behind my ear. “Can I tell you about what happened, just to get this over with, so I don’t have to think about it tomorrow?”  

“You're right,” Chris closed his laptop and laid down opposite me. “Tell me what happened.”   

So I told him everything. Beginning with my visit to my dad’s new home to my mum explaining what was really going on in my home for the last couple of months. How my whole family lied to me about my dad, his child, new girlfriend. How they wanted to create an illusion for me, so I’d feel safe and secure at home. Tears started to run down my cheeks again, as I realized I couldn't trust them anymore. I couldn’t trust the people who were supposed to make me feel safe. “You know that feeling when you think you can’t trust anyone, you feel alone and...” I sobbed.  

Chris brought me closer to his body and I buried my face in his neck. “You’re not alone, you can trust me and I’m here for you. We have the next couple of days just to ourselves, I don’t want you to think about it, ok?”   

“Ok.” I nodded.  

I fell asleep in no time. Chris' arms around me, made me feel so secure and warm, I just closed my eyes and drifted off.   

In the morning I realized that I forgot to close the blinds. Happens to me a lot. Chris was behind me, laying on his back, with my head on his arm. His hand was clutching mine. I turned around to look at him.   

His lips were slightly apart. I noticed how long his eyelashes were. Probably longer than mine. I pulled myself up and up and noticed something. He has tattoos! There were some both on his left and right arm, as well as something peeking out of his t-shirt. How did I land a guy like that?  

I went to the bathroom to sort myself out and brush my teeth. I decided to go to the shop downstairs and buy something for breakfast. Omelette, pancakes? Both.  

These were the two things I was a pro at making, so it didn’t take me a long time. Chris was still asleep, so I went back to the bedroom to wake him up. I sat on the edge of my bed and stroked his beard. “Good morning, handsome.” I whispered. I could barely take my eyes and hands off his tattoos.  

“Good morning, beautiful.” He grabbed my waist without opening his eyes and tackled me on to the bed. He wrapped his arms around my torso and laid down on my stomach. “I smell breakfast...” He murmured.  

“Yeah, I made omelettes and pancakes.” I said, running my fingers through his hair.  

“I mean, I smell breakfast in here.” He moved up to my face’s level and connected our lips. I was loving it. His lips on mine. His tongue on mine. His hand roaming up and down my side. I think my cheeks even got red.   

But then Chris moved to be on top of me and I knew I needed to stop this. “Chris... let’s go.” I whispered against his lips. He moved an inch to look into my eyes and then smiled. He planted a kiss on my forehead and let me go.  

I went back to the kitchen, while he went to the bathroom for a second. I felt so stupid. I should’ve predicted that.   

“Oh my God, this is so much more than I can fit in.” Chris appeared in the kitchen, fully dressed. He kissed my temple, then sat down opposite me.  

I decided to explain that situation. While he was in the middle of an omelette, I started. “Chris, I have to talk to you about something.”   

He looked up at me. “Em, if it’s about what happened in the bed – I’m sorry, I got a little bit carried away.”  

“I don’t mean you, Chris. I liked it, I was enjoying it. I just...” I sighed. “I’m a virgin and...” That was the moment he choked on his food. His work fell on the plate. It was like a comedy movie scene. He took a sip of water and took a big breath. “I know this probably isn’t how you imagined our relationship would look like, but I don’t know when I’ll be actually ready to...”  

“Emily, it's fine.” He stood up and walked over to me. “I was just shocked, you know.” He buried his fingers in my hair and looked me in the eyes. “You are incredibly, smart, witty, beautiful and sexy. I can barely keep my eyes and hands off of you. I was sure that in your almost 22 years, there was someone who tried very hard to be your first and succeeded. I didn’t want to rush you and I wasn’t even going to do anything serious today. I just couldn’t help myself. Believe me, I respect your decision.”  

“Thank you,” I said. “I mean, it’s not a decision I made, it's just. I never felt safe and happy in a relationship, which is the reason why I never had sex.”  

“I get that,” he assured me. “If we get to that point, I want you to feel comfortable and not pressured to do that, ok?”   

“Yeah,” I nodded. He left my side to continue eating his meal. “but just so you know, it’s been a week and I already feel more comfortable with you than I have ever felt with anyone else.”   

Chris gave me a warm smile. “I’m glad,” he said. “It's the first time I’m dating a 21 year old, since I was a 21 year old myself, so I’m trying very hard not to fuck anything up.”   

“You're doing great.”   

We walked around a lot, went to the Central Park, had lunch, then we went to a museum. It turned out that a photographer had been following us the whole time – we noticed his while leaving the museum. Because of that, we decided to head back home, order some food in and watch some movies. Chris insisted on Disney, while I wanted something I haven’t seen yet. I closed the blinds, while Chris scanned through my watch list on Netflix. We finally agreed on something and played the movie.  

The next day we had to be up early for a flight, Chris was almost ready to go, while I haven’t even finished packing. Chris wasn’t very happy about it, but he never said anything. He told me what his team are going to get him to wear and I chose something that suited his outfit. “Are you sure you want me to go to these races with you?”  

“Why wouldn’t I want you to?” he asked, taking his eyes off the phone screen. “If you’re talking about keeping us a secret, then it might be a little bit too late.” He chuckled.  

“Have they already made it into a story?” I asked and unlocked my phone to check my e-mails. There was a message from Hannah.  

“Does she always send you articles about you?”   

“No, only when it’s a new story,” I said and showed him my phone. “ _New couple alert! 21-years old_  

 _Britiish_ _actress, Emily Dawson, was spotted at the JFK airport, arriving from London in the late evening. She didn’t emerge the airport immediately, but instead waited for her new rumoured beau, Chris Evans! The pair showed off some PDA as they greeted each other and left the airport. The Brit was so happy to see her Captain America, she jumped on him! If you didn’t know Emily has joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe recently, so looks like she will working with her new boyfriend in the nearest future. While the actress has never been publicly linked to any other celebrities, Evans’ dating history is quite rich_ …”  

“Ok, that’s enough.” Chris smiled and took my phone away.  

Chris got a call that our car was waiting for us outside, so we left.   

“You know I can just check it later, right?” I continued the topic we abandoned at home.   

“I’d rather you didn’t,” he said. “Em, look. We’ll talk about it one day, but it’d rather tell you about it myself, than have you read about my dating life on the Internet, because half of it isn’t true.”  

“Ok.” I agreed.   

I listened do Chris’ request and didn’t read the rest of the article, which went on about his sexual conquests in detail. I assume it was in detail, as it took up most of the page. I did scroll down to the comments section, though.  

 _“Who cares? They’ll be over in the next few weeks and he’ll run back to_ _Minka_ _AGAIN.”_  

 _“Jessica was clearly “the one” for him, which is why none of his relationships after her lasted more than one year.”_  

Oh, ok. I hope we never talk about it then.   

I tried to get it off my mind on the ride to the airport, but I couldn’t. It’s been a week and I was already so attached to Chris. He was just a person you wanted to be around and if you add attraction, then you wish you could spend every moment with him. He planned the best date of my life in less than 12 hours and flew to New York especially for me, because the of family drama. There’s always that trial stage of the relationship, where you’re dating already, but still want to see if it’s even worth it. Well, it is.   

I really hope the fact that we will be working together and actually make time to see each other, will help us last, because I’m already very emotionally involved.  

We were waiting at the gate, when Chris grabbed my hand and kissed my knuckles. I think I blushed.  

“What’s that for?”  

He put his arm around me and brought me close enough to whisper in my ear. “You have to know, that gossip sites will bring up shit like that all the time. By next Friday, they’ll be reporting on us being off the second time.”  

Chris was right. I really shouldn’t look at what the media has to say about us, especially about out private lives.   

When we landed in Daytona, Chris had to leave for some conference, while I went to our hotel, took a shower and tried to get some more sleep. The moment I was finally falling asleep, I got a notification. At first, I ignored it, but then more and more started to come. I checked the screen. The group chat I had with my hometown friends was blowing up. They saw the news about Chris and I.   

 **Sophie:** _Why do we, your friends, have to find out about such things via the internet!?_   

 **Mary:**   _Yeah! We should be the first people to know + give you our opinion and approval._   

 **Amy:** _He is_ _sooooo_ _, your type. It’s like he was crafted especially for you._    

Me: It started a week ago, but I kind of forgot to tell you, because of all the drama surrounding my parents. I came back to New York late night on Thursday and tried to have a detox from my phone, because of all the messages my mum and dad have been sending me.  

I figured, that writing the whole story about my parents would take too much time, so I started a group call and explained everything. I was really proud of myself, because I didn’t even feel like crying, it was just another story to tell now.   

“I don’t know if I should say this, but your dad never struck me as a type to do something like that.” Amy said. “Fucking wanker.”  

“I can get over the cheating and divorce part, you know,” I sighed. “They’re adults, it’s their business. But why would they lie to me for such a long time?”  

“Parents do weird things, because they think it will be good for their children.” Mary said. “Let’s leave this topic, I want to know if Chris Evans is a good kisser, how does it feel when you touch his bicep and describe his set of abs to me, please.”  

She said it the moment I heard the door open and moments later Chris appeared. “Well, he’s an excellent kisser. Grade A use of tongue. Soft lips. Nice feel of his beard.”   

“Don’t get too attached to the beard, cause it has to be gone for Avengers.” He spoke. “Is this a group call about me?”   

“Yes.”  

“No.”  

“Yes.”  

All girls said at the same time. Well.   

“Partly.” I corrected them. “They were very upset about finding out about us from the press. Also, they’ve approved you for now.” I informed Chris, as he laid down next to me.   

“I am honoured to heard that,” he smiled and put his hand on his heart. “Approval of people who know Emily the most is what I seek.”  

Soon I hung up at last and put my phone back on the nightstand. “I don’t know if you heard that, but they asked me to describe your abs.” I said.  

“And what did you say?”   

“I didn’t say anything. I mean, I haven’t seen them...” It didn’t take him long to react. Chris simply just pulled his shirt off. More than on the abs, I focused on his tattoos. Especially the ones on his chest. “I love it.”   

“My mom hates them, even though I got one for her.” Chris smiled and pointed at the one on his bicep. He explained all of their meanings. I was surprised with how many of them were dedicated to his family. The one near his collarbone, the one I liked the most, was a Buddhist quote.   

“Aren’t you Catholic?” I asked, tracing the cursive with my fingers. He did mention once that his mother is religious. “I mean, I’m not saying you can’t have it tattooed...”  

“I don’t practise, the last time I went to a church was for my nephew’s baptism.” He explained. “I did practice Buddhism for a while, especially meditation. It helps me with anxiety.”   

“You have anxiety?” I asked. I know it happens to everyone, but I couldn’t understand how such a tall, broad and happy man could have anxiety.”  

“I don’t like being surrounded by many people, especially inside. For example, Comic Con while signing autographs or being surrounded by photographers, because they tend to get too close.” He explained. I took his hand and examined how big it looked compared to mine.  

“I didn’t know that, are you going to be ok tomorrow?” I asked. “That time, when we were leaving JFK and you tried to shield me from the photographers, even though it was only making you come closer to them...”  

Chris sat up so his face was at my level. “Look, dating me has so many cons and I’ve learned about them over the years. I just want to make being with me easier, you know?”  

I looked into his bright blue eyes. “Christopher, you have been nothing, but a support for me over the last few days and you didn’t have to. It’s been a week, you didn’t have to get that involved.” I said. “The only cons I’m experiencing with you, are the ones I’ve already been experiencing.” I laid down next to him closed my eyes. “You’re incredible.”   

He moved to face me and soon I felt his lips on mine. “Mmm.” I moaned as his tongue slipped between my lips. Chris moved an inch to look me in the eyes. His were darkened.   

I wrapped my arms around his neck only to bury my fingers in his hair and lifted my head up to reach his lips and continue the kiss. Chris held me by my waist and pulled against his body. I felt his warmth though the thin fabric of my t-shirt. As my hands roamed down to his arms and back, Chris' mouth moved down to nibble on my neck. I moaned quietly, as he sucked on my skin, surely to leave a mark. “Tell me when you want me to stop and I’ll stop, ok?” he whispered and gave me a quick peck on the lips. I nodded. He moved back down to my collarbone and bit the skin lightly. I felt his hands roam down my stomach and stop at the hem of my t-shirt. Chris kept taking quick looks at me to see my reactions. I was enjoying every second and shivered as he started to pull my shirt up.   

“Baby, we don’t…” he whispered against my lips, but I stopped him by pushing my lips against his.   

“I don’t want to go all the way…” I said, as I lifted my shirt to expose me bare breasts. Chris pushed me gently and looked at my body. “But I don’t want to stop yet.” 

“I wish I could just take a picture of that,” he said. “You are beautiful, Emily.” He leaned down and pressed his lips right above my breast. I never felt anything like it. As Chris' mouth travelled to my nipple, I realized how emotions are vital for sex. It’s not always about the activity, but who you’re doing it with. I was aching for his touch and every time his fingers touched my skin, I felt relief. 

Cold air hit my wet nipples as Chris moved down to my stomach, past my belly button and reached the hem of my jeans. He glanced at me.  

“I have no idea what you’re waiting for...” I nearly moaned. Chris unbuttoned my trousers and pulled them off me. His strong arms wrapped around my thighs to pull me closer to the edge of the bed. He started to plant kisses up my thighs. I squirmed under that delicate endearment, but he held me firmly. “Chris, please...” I whimpered.  

“What do you want, baby girl?” he whispered against the delicate skin of my upper thigh. I think I got even more wet because of what he said. “Where do you want me?”  

I sighed and pulled myself up on my shoulders to face Chris. I looked him in the eyes, which were darker now. “I want your lips on my pussy.” I said slowly.  

He smirked and planted a kiss on my clothed sex. “Is that enough?” he asked then grabbed the sides of my panties and started to pull them down agonizingly slowly, kissing every spot he uncovered. When he finally undressed me completely, I heard him take a deep breath. “Sweet heavens.” 

His next actions wiped a grin off my face. He dove between my thighs and finally made my wish come true. He closed his lips around my clit, sucking it gently. “How do you like that baby girl?” he mumbled against me. I wasn’t able to answer, just made some noises in between moans. He then moved down and started to lick along my slit, biting my inner lips and tugging at them. 

I was squirming under him, grabbing the sheets around me. It was so pleasurable, I couldn’t take it. I moaned each time Chris’ tongue met my skin. “Chris...” I squealed as he bit my clit. “Fuck...” I grabbed his hair once again, as orgasm flooded my body. Panting heavily, I lifted my hips, not having enough of what he was doing to me.  

He never stopped. Chris tongue kept flicking over me, kissing, sucking, doing everything to make my ecstasy as long as possible. 

I came twice. He has not used his fingers once. I came twice courtesy of his mouth.  

“Chris...” I was panting and barely managed to say his name out loud. “That was...” He laid down next to me. Hair messy from my fingers, lips swollen, eyes dark. I wanted him so much at that point.  

Despite barely being able to move my legs, I moved to hover over him. I pushed my lips against his to taste myself in his mouth. I was still high from the orgasms he gave me, so our kisses were sloppy, full of hunger. I couldn’t help but let my hands wander around Chris’ firm, hard and well-defined muscles. “I feel obliged to tell you, the only time I’m in shape like that is near filming Cap,” he smiled against my lips. “I hope you won’t be disappointed in a few months, when it’s all gone.” 

When he was talking, I moved down to his neck and collarbone. I stopped at the quote tattoo and bit on it. “As long as the tattoo stays, I’ll be fine.” I mumbled against his skin and moved down his torso until I reached his happy trail. I sat up next to his hips and started to unbuckle his belt.  

“Em, you said you didn’t want to go all the way,” Chris sat up and gently grabbed my wrist. “It’s ok.” 

I smirked. “I’m not, Christopher,” I kissed him again. “Now lay back and relax.” 

He obeyed and I slipped off his trousers. His boxers did nothing to hide what was inside them, so I pulled them off immediately. I imagined Chris would be above average, because of his height and posture, but apart from being proportionally long, he was also thicker. My God, I was already afraid of giving him head because of my poor experience, but now it turned out there was much more I had to handle.  

It was fully erect and hard. I moved to sit between Chris’ legs and took his length in my hand. I started to move my palm up and down his shaft. I leaned down and licked it from the base right to the tip before wrapping my lips around the tip. I used as much saliva as I could, to make him slippery fast. I wanted him all the way inside my mouth. I knew he would love it. I knew I’d love it. I bobbed my head up and down on him, causing Chris to moan and grunt at my actions. He gathered my hair in his hand and put in a ponytail, without pulling on it. “You’re such a good girl, you’re doing so great, baby girl.” he groaned. His praise made me want to go even deeper. I deep-throated him a few times and stayed like that for a few seconds the last time. “Fuck, yes...” he moaned.  

Then I went back to moving my hands up and down his dick. I focused on his balls, which made Chris make the hottest moans I’ve ever heard. “Baby, I’m so close...”  

I sucked on the delicate skin, while still taking care of his shaft. He started to squirm and twitch and I knew he was close, so I took him into my mouth again and waited for the orgasm while still sucking and licking his throbbing length. He released into my mouth and I swallowed it all.  

Chris was panting heavily, as I was earlier. He pulled himself up to face me. “Emily,” he sighed. “That was incredible.” 

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pushed us to lay down on the bed. “Christopher,” I whispered. “You just gave me my first orgasm.”  

His eyes widened. “What!?” 

“Well, a guy once ate me out and I gave him a blowjob, but neither of us came.” I explained. 

“You should’ve just stopped at ‘you just gave me my first orgasm’, because I just can’t imagine you now making someone come and I don’t understand how some asshole could just leave you unsatisfied.“ he wrapped his arms around my waist and buried his face into the crook of my neck. “Let’s just take a nap now, you tire me out.” 


	3. Riiiight,

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Emily's birthday and she spends it with Chris in the best ways possible.

I was sitting on Chris’ sofa in his house. I spent the last few days in there, babysitting Dodger. I took over from Scott, who took care of him while I was in England filming  _Macbeth_ and Chris was promoting  _Captain America: The Winter Soldier_. 

So, I was there, petting the dog, whose head was on my lap, watching Modern Family and eating popcorn. Chris had had a premiere today and was now asleep in his hotel room, trying to get some sleep before his flight home. Dodger and I were missing him dearly, because we both haven’t seen him in two weeks, but since the dog accepted me as his temporary care-taker, we’ve had some decent times. 

We’d FaceTime Chris a few times a day, when we had time and would just keep the connection on while doing what we had to do. It was just so natural and casual. 

I looked at the clock and realized it was time to walk Dodger. He followed me enthusiastically when I stood up and grabbed his leash. I was very happy when he got used to spending time with me as he was one of the most beautiful and well-behaved dogs I’ve ever encountered.

He was pulling me to walk faster towards the park. I took a few pictures on the way. I got used to taking hundreds of photos and flooding Chris with them. 

At first I sat down on a bench and let Dodger run around on the grass. At one point he started to chase a butterfly, which was one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen. I stood up and started to play with him using the ball I brought. Chris taught him to fetch, sit, lay down, roll and he was so well-behaved that spending time with Dodger was truly a blessing.

I had to go back to run over my calendar for April with Hannah. I wanted to see how much time I would be able to spend with Chris, since we missed out most of March. It turned out we had a lot of filming together in Atlanta, Seoul and England, which was great, because we’ve been dating for 5 weeks and only spent 1 one week together. 

To be honest, I was already falling in love with him. Chris was this perfect guy every girl dreams of. He's the full package. The way he takes care of me, when we're together and asks how I'm doing when we're not. And tries to solve my problems despite being thousand of miles away. I can’t ever imagine myself being with another man, because no one will ever come close to that. 

I spent some more time outside in the backyard, playing with Dodger, before laying down on the sofa, with the dog next to me and playing some films. 

I must've been really tired, because I fell asleep watching the movies and woke up to Chris standing over Dodger and me. “Hey, beautiful,” He greeted me quietly. “What did you do to him? He always freaks out when I come back.”

“We had some long walks yesterday and I must've tired hi out. I fell asleep around 9PM.” I smiled as he leaned down to kiss my forehead.

I closed my eyes and smiled. I tried to get up without waking up the dog, but I failed and Dodger started to bark happily at Chris. It took him 10 minutes to calm down and get over it.

“Wait, what time is it?” I asked, noticing the dark sky. It was only 4 in the morning. “How am I not tired?” 

Chris walked up to me and pulled closer to his body by my waist. “It’s cause you’re as excited to see me as Dodger is.” He planted a kiss on my lips. “Happy birthday, baby.” He whispered against my lips.

“Riiiiight,” I grinned. “I don’t feel like celebrating, though.” I snuggled my face into his chest. He smelled so good. It was actually a part of my little plan. Surprisingly, I was ready for another step with Chris and wanted it to happen on my birthday – mostly because I knew it would be one of few days off we’d get together in a while. He’s the sweetest and kindest person on Earth and I wasn’t even nervous about that decision.

“Let’s go take a nap then, huh?” Chris suggested. I nodded and he simply lifted me up, just to carry me to the bedroom. 

He put me down on the bed, but I was already prepared for what was going to happen tonight. “I’ll just go to the bathroom for a minute.” 

I had already prepared a white lingerie set for tonight. It consisted of a delicate, sheer lace bra and panties. I covered it up with a short, white, silk robe. I checked my face and it was flushed delicately, I fixed my hair. I took a few deep breaths and opened the door slowly. 

Chris was laying on the bed, he was on the phone with Scott, who’s in Boston. “... I mean, she really has to lay off. I don’t know if Emily would want to meet them so soon...” he turned to me and stopped. “Tell mom I say hi, bye.” I moved slowly and walked up to his side of the bed. “What is happening?” he asked. 

“When I was here alone, I kept thinking how great you are, you are an incredible man,” I started. “And I was wondering why I never let anyone have sex with me and it's because no one's ever made me feel safe like you do.” I took his hand and sat on the edge of the bed, next to him. “I want to do it, if you’re up for it.” 

He seemed surprised, astonished. “Emily, are you sure you want me to deflower you?” he asked and I smiled at his choice of words. “I mean, I’m much older than you, I’m a mess, I might be having a panic attack right now...”

I put my lips on his to shut him up. “I want you, Christopher.” I mumbled against his lips and moved to sit on his lap. “You are all I want and need in a man, you make me happy the moment you come near me and I want this to happen.”

Chris took my face into his hands and deepened the kiss. His tongue massaged mine as I his hands slid the robe off my shoulders. “Tell me if you want to stop.” He whispered. “I really want this, but I don’t want you to regret it.” 

“Oh my God, Evans,” I sighed and pulled his shirt off. “Just fuck me already.” He rose his eyebrow and pushed me rapidly to lay under him.

“The lady gets, what the lady wants, then.” He sunk to kiss my throat and nibble on the delicate skin of my neck. I creeped my hand up his muscular, tense arms and rested on his shoulder blades. “No teasing tonight, baby.” 

While Chris' lips moved to my breasts to suck on my hardened nipples, his hands moved down to my pussy, his thumb rubbing my clit. “Just gotta get my girl ready for me,” I squirmed under his touch. “But it seems like you are ready.” Chris moved back to look me in the eyes, while his fingers were doing wonders on my pussy. I felt one finger circle around my entrance, it made my pelvis jolt up. “You’re so responsive, princess. I love it.” 

Chris stood up to get rid of his trousers and I bit my bottom lip as I saw his hard cock slap against his stomach. It made me a little nervous, because I’ve never masturbated with anything more than my two fingers and it still felt a little tight. “You look angelic, baby,” Chris whispered as he stroked his shaft gently. “I’m gonna be gentle for now, ok?”

I nodded and wrapped my hands around his shoulders as Chris hovered over me, resting his weight on his elbows. He captured my lips in his, I felt him guide his cock against my wet folds and let out a moan. His tip pushed against my pussy and I gasped as he moved inside me gently. As Chris deepened out kiss, I felt him hit my hymen. He made a more rapid move and tore the thin tissue. It was more uncomfortable then hurtful, but Chris broke the kiss to look me in the eyes. “Is everything ok?”

I nodded. “Just go slow, ok baby?” I whispered. He seemed relieved and continued to move inside me, still not burying fully inside. I wanted that, I couldn’t wait for him to be fully inside me. My pussy started to clench around his length and we both moaned loudly as Chris buried himself inside me completely.

“Fuuuuck, Chris...” I arched my back as I reached my first orgasm, while Chris wasn’t even close. I dig my fingernails into his back as he continued to thrust into me, slowly quickening the pace. Chris was panting heavily, while I kept moaning his name. He angled himself to hit my g-spot and it made my second orgasm come even sooner. Chris changed his position and lifted my leg to reach even deeper. 

“Baby girl, you feel so good around my dick,” he breathed out and moved his hand from my hip to my clit, to speed up my third orgasm. He rubbed his finger against it. “Come on, baby. One more time. Come with me.”

I was so sensitive at this point, that another orgasm arrived quickly just as Chris’ did. The room was filled with our heavy breathing, our bodies covered with sweat. Chris pulled out and sat between my legs. 

“We should’ve done that weeks ago,” I mumbled. “Chris, that was...”

Chris smirked and kissed my knee. “I know,” he moved to lay down next to me. “I might need to eat more, since I’ll be doing more cardio from now on.”

I smiled and hid my face in the crook of his neck. “How did you do that?” I asked. “I came three times while you only came once... You're like a sex God.”

Chris chuckled. His hand wandered down to my ass and grabbed the flesh. “Gotta be at my best for my best girl.” I laughed at the use of old slang. 

We both fell asleep and it was the best sleep I’ve ever had. I woke up at 12PM to a empty bed and got out to look for Chris. I put on his black t-shirt and panties and left the room. My thighs were a little sore from last night. Actually, I had trouble walking normally.

I found my boyfriend running around the kitchen like crazy. He was cooking something for me. He really is a real prince charming.

“Hi,” I said. “What's cookin, good looking?”

Chris lifted his head to look at me and grinned. “Hello, birthday girl! You should be in bed, wearing your birthday suit!”

I sat on a stool by the kitchen island. “Are those pancakes with chocolate and strawberries?”

Chris nodded. “I mean, I'm trying to make it look like pancakes.” He explained. “Seriously, go back to bed. I’ll bring everything there.”

I sighed, went back to the bedroom, brushed my teeth and jumped back into the bed. I had some text messages waiting for me, like the one's on my group chat with the girls. They wished me new roles, good reviews, an Oscar and great sex with Chris in the future. Well, I did have to let them know.

**Me** _: Ladies, just so you know. A mere 7-8 hours ago I had my first_ _time with Chris._

**Me** _: I came three times._

**Me** _: I can barely walk like a human being._

I was fully expecting my phone to blow up with notifications, but I heard Chris come in, so I switched the internet connection off.

Chris brought my breakfast on a tray along with a few roses around the plate, a mug of hot chocolate and a Harry Winston box. I glared at him immediately. “I think we’re gonna have to name a price limit for the next occasions.” 

Chris sat down next to me and kissed my forehead. “Happy birthday, baby girl,” he whispered. “I hope you’ll let me occupy you for the whole day.” 

I smiled. “I wouldn’t want to spend the day in any other way.” 

He let me eat the pancakes, while he answered some e-mails. They weren’t the best, but I knew he tried his best, so I wouldn’t dare to complain. “Thank you very much,” I said and sat next to Chris, resting my elbow against his hips. “I didn’t know you were a culinary mastermind.” 

“I really wish I was,” he smirked and tossed his phone aside. “So, why won’t you open your present?” 

I grabbed the box. “You know that’s my fifth present today, right?” Chris raised his eyebrow. “Three orgasms, breakfast and now this.” I explained. 

Chris started to laugh. “There will be more coming, then.” 

I opened the box and saw a beautiful, gold bracelet. It was delicate and thin. It had a few little leaves on it, it looked so amazing. “I love it,” I smiled at Chris and hugged him. “Thank you.”

Chris took the piece and put it on my wrist. “How about it draw you a bath now?” he suggested.

“Am I going to get the Royal treatment for the whole day?”

Chris smiled and went to the bathroom. “This is how I’d like to treat you every day.” He explained. 

I laid back down on the bed and took my phone. As I suspected, Sophie, Mary and Amy sent like a hundred messages, asking how it was and how good Chris is in bed.

 **Mary** :  _You can't just send something like that and leave!_

 **Sophia** :  _Yeah, that's a dick move!_

 **Me** :  _It was amazing, Chris is incredible._ _If he keeps it up, I won’t be able to walk by myself._ _He made me breakfast to bed, got me_ _a Harry Winston bracelet and now he’s drawing me a bath._

 **Amy** :  _He sounds like_ _perfect husband material._

“Emily, it’s ready!” Chris called. He left the bathroom, waiting for me to join him. I stood up and took my shirt off. Chris was waiting for me by the bath. It was filled with blue coloured water and rose petals. “What do you think?”

I smiled widely. “It looks great,” I said. “Will my perfect boyfriend be joining me?” 

“Only if you want me to.” 

We sat in the bath, my back against Chris' chest. He was massaging my shoulders and I was just trying to relax and not think about anything. “God, baby...” I moaned.

“I love that sound,” Chris whispered. “I’m gonna make sure I hear it as often as I can.”

I rested my head against Chris’ shoulder and reached out with my hand to scratch the back of his neck. “I’m a very lucky girl, then.” I whispered before dosing off.  Chris’ hands roaming around my body made me as relaxed as I hadn’t been in a while.

When the bath started cool off, we got out and it turned out Chris had planned everything out. He got dressed before me and told me to wear something comfortable and meet him by the car. I got a little confused, but did what he told me to. “Dodger is coming with us?” I asked as I saw the pupper in the backseat. 

“He is,” Chris answered. “But please, just relax and try not spoil the surprise this time, ok?” 

“Fine.” To be honest, I had already worked out that we were going on a picnic, but didn’t want to say anything. Chris had mentioned a few times that he was a hopeless romantic, but he really understated that. 

We arrived at some part of the Hollywood Hills. Chris got a basket and two blankets out of the boot. I put Dodger on a lead and we marched some way up. “This is the best birthday I’ve ever had so far,” I admitted. “Even better than the time I got pissed for the first time.” 

“Oh God, you have to tell me now.” Chris grinned and laid one blanket on the ground. 

“I was 17 and it was the first time I drank vodka. My friends showed me pictures and videos from the evening and I couldn’t recognize myself. I was on the ground, on my hands and knees. Literally, a mess. And I was running around, chasing a guy I liked back then.” I explained.

I sat on the blanket and Chris laid his head on my lap. “You know, I’m not a jealous guy, generally, but whenever you talk about other men in your life, I feel like punching them real hard.” 

As Dodger laid next to Chris, I reached out my hand to scratch his head and leaned down to give Chris a kiss. “I never thought you would be a jealous type.” I said. “I thought I’d be the jealous one in our relationship.” 

“I never was, you broke me, woman.” He joked. I pinched his cheek in response.

We dropped the jealousy topic and moved on. Chris admitted to having anxiety attacks before agreeing to portray Captain America. “I also refused a few times, but thankfully, Marvel didn't stop asking.” 

“Do you still get those?” I asked, playing with a few loose strands of hair on his forehead. 

“Sometimes,” he admitted. “During premieres, interviews or conferences, just around people who judge me.” 

“I’m judging you right now,” I said and made Chris shifted on his elbow. “I know anyone can get anxious, but you are a smart, generous, kind, handsome, sexy, tall man...”

“Oh no, keep going.” He smirked. “I get ‘ _I thought you were bigger_ ’ too often to miss an opportunity like that.” 

I laughed at him, looking at his incredible biceps and chest and just his whole face and body. “If it makes you feel any better, you’re big enough for me,” I whispered wrapping my arms around him. “I still have sore thighs.”

“Maybe I should give you a massage?” Chris asked. “To make up for it...” He put his hand on my thigh and gave me a gentle kiss, before giving another, a deeper one. His thumb brushed against the sensitive skin of my inner thigh and I opened my mouth in a quiet moan. Chris used it as an opportunity to slip his tongue into my mouth and explore it. I ran my fingers through Chris’ hair as he bit my bottom lip. He pushed me gently to lay on the blanket and laid next to me. I smiled against his lips as his hand moved to my hip and then gripped my ass. “God, I love it.”

“You really are an ass man, Christopher.” I gasped at the rough squeeze.

“You know, I used to be pretty sure about this, but then you appeared with those beauties...” He looked down at my breasts. “It’s a draw right now, I guess.” Chris’ lips moved to my neck, which he already knew, was sensitive. He found my sweet spot and started to suck on it. I felt that our activities were making Chris more and more excited.

“Chris, I’m loving it,” I whispered. “but we're in public and your dog is napping next to us.” 

He pulled back and smiled. “Sorry,” he apologised. “Once we’ve started, I don’t know when I’ll get enough of you.” I smiled as he laid down next to me. I moved to put my head on his chest while he wrapped his arm around me. “Let's stay here until the sunset and then we can do whatever you want.” 

I pulled out my phone and opened the camera. “Smile!” I said. I took one normal picture which was followed by a series of selfies photobombed by Dodger. 

“Oh God, send me all of them.” Chris laughed. 

I scrolled through the pics and chose one. “Can I post this one on my private Instagram?” 

“You have a private and a public one?” Chris asked.

“Hannah handles most of the stuff on the public one, I only do stuff on my private account. “ I explained. “Only some of my friends follow me, cast mates and family. Also, Scott follows me.” 

“Post it, then,” Chris agreed. “But I want the caption to say  _My incredible_ _boyfriend took me_ _out to see sunset over Hollywood Hills_ _on my birthday_ _and I’m so grateful for it._ ” 

“Yeah, it really sounds like me.” I smirked and posted the photo. “Done.”

We watched the sun, making small talk about nothing and everything, until the Sun disappeared. When it started to get dark, we gathered our things and went back to the car. 

Suddenly, I remembered something. “What were you and Scott talking about?” 

He smirked. “My mom wants to meet you.” He said. “But I asked her not to pressure us, because you might not want to do this yet.”

To be honest, every time Chris told me anything about his parents, they seemed like really kind people, ones you’d like to meet. So maybe I should? There will be an opportunity when we get back from filming in London. Maybe he should meet my parents when we are in London?

“How about...” I started. “you meet my parent’s while we’re in London and then I meet yours when we get back?”

Chris nodded, but didn’t seem convinced. “Aren’t you still not talking to yours?”

“Then called me today, I’ll call them back tomorrow.” I sighed. “I’ve already spoken to my brothers, so it’s alright between us. I had a heated text exchange with my dad. I reckon we’ll be fine by June. And it’s still plenty of time, so it definitely won’t be too soon to meet yours.”

Chris sighed. “I know your parent did you dirty, but they’re still your parents, Emily. I hated my parents’ divorce, too. But if they were alright with you before that then you should try to make up with them? I know that this lie thing was just awful and I’m not justifying their actions, but...”

“Then don’t.” I snapped and ended the conversation. 

We remained quiet for the rest of the ride. When Chris parked outside his house, I left the car, let Dodger out and took him for a walk. Chris didn’t say anything, he just texted me.

_Can you just confirm that you’re taking him on a walk and it’s not a kidnapping?_

_We’ll be back in half an hour._

I took Dodger to the same park we usually take him to, where I sat on the bench. I pulled my phone out and dialled my Mum’s number. 

“Yes?” she answered with a sleepy voice.

“Mum, why didn’t you tell me about Dad straight away?” I asked. 

She sighed. “I told you we wanted you to be able to come back to a normal, regular home, but to be honest, I was ashamed.”

“Ashamed of what? He should be ashamed.”

“Emilia, I’m wasn’t surprised he got into an affair,” she started. “We started to get more and more distant, we stopped spending time together, despite your father’s efforts. 

She explained how they just got worn out and both started “working late”, spending time with other people. I turned out that my Mum got into an affair too, but she didn’t have a kid with that other guy. The actual truth didn’t sound half as bad as what they initially told me.

“Why would you hide all of it from me and not from Matt and Charlie?” I asked. 

She didn’t respond right away. “You didn’t feel comfortable in the U.S. at first and you always came home seeking comfort. We didn’t want you to come here and have to deal with our problems.”

I tried to explain that solving other people’s problems is a part of being in a family and it would’ve been easier for me to understand two adults divorcing each other, even if they were my parents, rather than have them lie to me to make me feel better. 

After we got everything of our chests, I changed the topic. “Anyway, Chris wants to meet you. Both of you.”

“That’s nice, when?”

“We’re filming in England by the end of May, so we will be free to go to London in the beginning of June.” I explained. “I’m just afraid Matt and Charlie will try to scare him off.”

“They’ll behave, I’ll make sure of it.”

Soon we ended the call and I decided to go back. I felt bad about lashing out at Chris. He was right after all and I refused to admit it.

He was sitting by the kitchen island, reading an e-mail. He didn't turn my way when I walked in. “I'm sorry,” I said, hugging my face into his bicep. “you were right.” 

“About what?” he locked the phone.

“I called my Mum, we apologized to each other,” I explained. “And now I’m apologizing you.” 

“Could you never do something like that again?” he asked quietly. “It's also things like that that trigger my anxiety.”

Suddenly, I felt terrible. He told me about his anxiety moments before I decided to do something so stupid. “Chris, I am so sorry,” I whispered and pressed my face against his chest. “I’d never leave like that. J just needed a moment alone, that’s it... I promise.”

He hugged me back, squeezing me tightly against his body. “It’s okay. I overreacted. It wasn’t the easiest topic and you deserved some time alone.” He spoke. “Besides, your relationship with your parents is none of my business.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s not. You’re my boyfriend and you’re going to meet them when we go to the UK, so it’s also your business now.” He raised his eyebrow. “My mum is excited to meet you and I’m sure my dad and brothers will be too, so we're doing it.”

We moved to the sofa, where I told Chris about the phone call and explained the entire situation. He was as surprised as I was, but didn’t comment on my parents' actions. “It was a stupid thing to do, but you were right – It’s between them, they both knew what was going on, and even though I don’t like it, I can’t be that mad at them,” I continued. “They lied to me, but I know they thought it would be the best for me.”

“People do weird things when they care about someone.” Chris sighed. “Let's just forget about it for now and watch some movies.”

He moved to lay his head on my lap. “I loved today, thank you.” I said, scratching his beard. “We should have picnics more often now that it’s getting warmer.”

“Sure, of course,” Chris agreed. “Just a quick note – I’m shaving my beard by the end of the week.”

My eyes widened. “I think we need a break, then.”


	4. That's convenient

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris and Emilia meet each other's families and friends.

“What should I wear?” Chris’ voice echoed from our hotel bedroom. “I didn’t bring many clothes.” 

I was just about to put in an earring, when he came into the bathroom. “Which one?” he held out a white and a light blue dress shirt. 

“Whoa, you want to wear a dress shirt to meet my parents?” I smirked. “You’re not proposing, are you?” 

“I did tell you that I’m not letting that skillful mouth of yours get away from me,” he joked. “But we are going to a restaurant, right?” 

“Yes,” I nodded. “But please, don’t make a great deal out of it. It will only make both of us more nervous. And wear the white one.” 

The restaurant was only a few blocks away, so we took a short walk. Chris looked amazing in that shirt and black trousers. I wished we had an extra 15 minutes for a quickie before the dinner, but it had to wait. “Maybe I should’ve brought a bottle of wine or something?” he asked, nervously. 

“I’m sure there’s wine at the restaurant, love,” I smiled and rubbed his forearm. “You have nothing to worry about.” 

Chris was incredibly nervous about meeting my parents. Apart from being worried that they might not like him, he also concerned about not understanding their accents, which weren’t different from mine, so no, there was nothing to worry about. 

“Should I pick up the check?” he continued. “I read about it, and...” 

I interrupted him by simply taking his face in my hands and kissing him, long and deep. “They are gonna love you, Christopher,” I whispered against his lips. “So please, don’t worry.” 

He nodded. “Thank you.” 

We entered the restaurant, where my parents were already sitting, waiting for us. I squeezed Chris’ bicep to cheer him up. “Hi, Mum,” I greeted her, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “Dad,” I moved back to Chris and introduced him. “This is Chris.” 

“Mrs. Dawson, Mr. Dawson.” I noticed his voice became a bit lower and more serious. 

“It is very lovely to meet you, Chris,” my mum said. 

“Emily told us a lot of good things about you.” Dad added. 

We sat down and ordered. Chris got a little bit more relaxed once he realized my parents were really not that scary. He was mainly nervous because of the conflict I had with them at the beginning of the year, but it was now all sorted out. My dad did like the fact that Chris decided not to drink alcohol, but didn’t know that he refused only because we were going to my friend's party later and he didn’t want to mix. 

“So, you two are going to be in a film together, right?” my Mum asked. 

Chris nodded. “Yes, we’re filming the first one right now, it’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. We are two months into filming and just came back from South Korea. We’re actually very lucky to be doing this together and avoid being apart for such a long time.” 

“Emily was always into comic books, I’m not surprised she landed a role in Marvel movies.” My dad laughed. “She'd always run around with her brothers playing football or something.” 

“Since I couldn’t bring our family albums, I have a few pictures on my phone,” my Mum reached to her bag. “I’m sure Chris would love to see some.” 

“Thank you, mum.” I said as I saw Chris' eyes light up. The only reason why I didn't protest, was because how happy Chris was now. My parents really liked him. How could anyone not like him? I looked at him, as he scrolled through my baby pictures with my mum and God... I love him. Words cannot describe what I feel when I look at my insanely beautiful and kind boyfriend. 

After Chris finished telling my parents the story of his life, childhood and other stuff, I noticed that it was time for us to go. “Chris, we should head out.” I interrupted. 

We said our goodbyes. Fortunately, there was no fight over the bill. My dad accepted Chris' offer to pay. Chris was a bit disappointed that my brothers couldn’t make it, but they both work in the same team and had an emergency they had to attend to. 

“You have my parents wrapped around your finger,” I joked on our way back to the hotel. “They were mesmerized.” 

“What can I say? Parents love me.” He shrugged. We reached the entrance. “I’ll just a have a smoke and I’ll be up in a minute.” 

I furrowed my eyebrows. “I asked you to stop smoking, baby.” 

“It’s not that easy.” He shrugged. 

I rolled my eyes at him and went back to our room. He did a good job hiding his addiction from me in the early stages of our relationship. He said that it was easier, because we weren’t spending as much time together as we are now. But now that we're both working on the same project, he couldn’t hide it anymore. I’m not saying that him smoking would have been a deal breaker, but I hate cigarettes and as much as I hate it when people ask their partners to change, I’d like to come up with a system to make him stop smoking. 

I took a very quick shower and headed out to the bedroom in a towel, to find something to wear. I settled on black trousers, white t-shirt and a jacket. 

I was still in my underwear when Chris came back. “Keep your distance, ashtray.” I snapped as he tried to get close to me. I hate the smell of cigarettes and it instantly makes me sick. 

I laid on the bed, while Chris was in the shower. There was still a lot of time before we had to leave, so I just opened Instagram and scrolled though my feed. Sophia had already posted her outfit for the evening. 

I heard that Chris finished showering, so I laid on my stomach, arching my back so my butt was popping out. “Chriiiis!” I called. “Can you help me with my phone?” 

“In a second,” he called back and soon I heard the door open. “what is... oh, you fucking didn’t.” 

I turned to see him with messy wet hair, in a towel around his hips. “Come on, babe.” I wiggled my butt at him. 

“Look at those long legs...” He walked over and I felt his finger draw a line from my foot, through my calf all the way to my upper thigh. He then got on the bed and sat on my thighs. His hands grabbed my butt cheeks firmly. I groaned as he squeezed then firmly. “I am so fucking lucky...” he sighed and spanked me. I gasped as I felt my skin sting lightly. He’s never done that before. “Did you like it?” he whispered. 

“Yeah,” I moaned. “Do it again.” 

I felt his palm smack against my ass again, but this time it was harder, and I gasped. “Fuck.” I mumbled against the sheets. 

“I’m loving it, but I need to fuck you already.” He blurted. I felt his fingers gently run up and down my clothed pussy. “How are you always so wet, baby girl?” 

I turned to meet his gaze. “You make me.” I groaned, feeling chills all over my body, caused by Chris' thumb rubbing against my panties. I heard him loose the towel, then he lowered my panties and I felt cold air against my sex. Chris buried two fingers in between my folds and breathed out slowly. 

“Chris, please...” I begged as he removed his fingers. They were soon replaced the tip of Chris' dick. “Fuck, yes.” 

I felt a light stretch which was both painful and pleasurable. I gripped the sheets as Chris moved deeper inside me. He hovered over my body, so his lips could reach the top of my spine. “You're taking me so well, baby...” he groaned against my skin. “Come on, come for me.” 

He started to pick up the pace, supporting himself with his one arm and using the other to hold my waist down. I felt my walls tighten around his shaft as my orgasm neared, I couldn't stop moaning, the friction was too much, Chris’ moans turned me on even more and I let go. 

Chris turned me to lay on my side, entered me again and he continued thrusting into me, his movements becoming more and more sloppy. I was seeing stars and I’m pretty sure my moans were audible from outside our apartment. Chris reached between my legs to play with clit. “You ready to come again for me, baby?” he breathed out. 

I heard Chris groan one last time as he released into me. I felt his dick twitch and we came together. Chris laid down, wrapping his arm around my waist to pull me close to his body. “I’m nearly 33 years old and I'm having the best sex of my life with you.” 

“I wish I could say the same thing...” I sighed and made Chris glare angrily at me. “But I have no comparison.” 

We stayed like that for a while before leaving for the party. It was a 30 minute drive from our hotel. Chris was driving with his hand constantly on my thigh, I held on to his arm. I did want to drive, because he doesn’t have experience driving on the left side, but he wouldn’t let me. “You’re going to drive on the way back, after I’ve had too much to drink.” 

“What if I want to drink too?” I asked, raising my eyebrow. 

“Oh, I mean, that’s fine...” he struggled. 

“I’m kidding! It’s fine, you agreed to meet my friends, I won’t drink if you want to.” I said, giving his bicep a kiss. “Besides, I hate most of them and I wanna show you off.” 

He burst into laughter. “How can you hate your friends?” 

“I like my friends, but I don’t like their friends and they are also gonna be there,” I explained. “Oh, and I should warn you. The guy I, um... the guy who turned out to be taken will be there.” 

“Ok, I can take that.” He nodded. 

“And the guy I used to have a crush on.” I added quickly. “But I really don’t talk to them anymore, you don’t even have to acknowledge them, ok? And if you hear a stupid comment, just think about the great sex we have, right?” 

“I’m gonna be fine, everyone’s got their history and I'm not going to ruin your night with friends with some jealousy outbursts.” 

We arrived at Sophie and Mary’s house and walked inside hand in hand. The girls surrounded us immediately, more excited to see Chris than me, their best friend. “It’s so nice to finally meet you! We’ve heard so much about you!” 

It didn’t take long for Chris to get to know most of the people and disappear into conversation with them. I stayed in the kitchen with the girls, using the one moment we had to talk privately. 

“Emilia Alexandra, he is perfect for you.” Amy said. “Visually, he’s exactly your type and character-wise, he’s all a man should be.” 

“I know, he’s amazing.” I sighed, watching him talk to Mary's boyfriend. No wonder, they were both around the same age. “And, don’t get me wrong, but... I’m afraid.” 

“Why? Has he done anything?” Sophia inquired, lowering her voice. 

“No, no. He’s absolutely perfect,” I smiled. “But he's older. 11 years is not the biggest age gap Hollywood has witnessed, but in a year or two, he'll start talking about having children. Right now, the whole idea of a childbirth freaks me out...” 

“Don’t think about it now, ok? I’m sure Chris understands that he’s not dating a woman who has to hurry up if she wants to be a mother,” Mary explained. “Besides, the man is clearly in love with you, already. He would wait 20 more years for you to be ready.” 

We had to end the conversation when more and more people neared the kitchen. I went to the living room, but before I sat down next to my boyfriend, Will, my former crush, appeared in front of me. 

We used to have this weird dynamic – we were never a couple, but our friends told us that we looked like one. “Haven't seen you in a long time, Em,” He said. “How are you?” 

“Oh, I’m alright,” I answered. “A little bit busy at the moment, but life’s good.” 

“Yeah, you got yourself a superhero,” he moved on to the topic quickly. “He doesn’t seem your type, though.” 

“Well, if you think that smart, tall, handsome and kind is not my type, then you’re wrong and most certainly don’t know me.” I shrugged and took a sip of my non-alcoholic mojito. 

Not wanting to waste any more time on Will, I walked to the living room, where Chris was having an incredibly energetic conversation with Harry, Mary's boyfriend, and Lucas. I wanted to sit next to him, but the moment he saw me, he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me down to sit on his lap. “How’s things?” I whispered and kissed his temple. 

“Things are good,” He responded with a sly smile on his face. “I thought you weren’t drinking tonight, baby.” 

“It’s a mojito, but without rum,” I explained. “So, what were you talking about?” 

“Oh, Chris was just telling us about Korea,” Harry said. “I’m actually going there on a work trip next month.” 

“That’s great,” I smiled. “I should've gone into marketing, you travel all the time and get to actually see the cities you go to...” 

“Heyyy,” Chris furrowed his eyebrows. “You wouldn’t have met me then.” 

Mary walked in with even more food on the plates and set them on the table. “So, Em, still can’t tell us anything about the movie?” 

“Oh, no fucking way,” I shook my head. “Marvel would fucking shoot me, just ask Chris. He’s been in this much longer than me.” 

“That’s true, they barely tell us anything and it constantly gets worse...” He confirmed. 

“How did you two meet?” Sam, Will's brother asked. At some point in the past, I thought he liked me, that we were getting along, because we had a lot in common, but it turned out that he was as mean as his brother was dumb. 

“We were on a plane to LA together and then I came to Chris' party.” I explained. 

“Oh, did she end up unconscious or vomited into your sink?” Adam asked and I rolled my eyes at him. I did this once at his house, because they kept pouring me strong drinks on an empty stomach. “She tends to do that.” 

“Nooo, I think she was actually enjoying herself at mine,” Chris replied, shutting Adam down. 

I could see Sophie glaring at Adam, Will and Sam, but it didn’t stop them. “Hey, do you remember, when you got so drunk on wine that you called Will to pick you up?” Sam smiled widely. “God, you were barely able to walk back to the car, weren’t you?” 

I felt Chris' fingers squeeze the skin of my waist more tightly. I knew he wouldn't do anything remotely impolite. I didn’t mind them saying that stuff – I knew it was only because they were mad that I was going forward and had an amazing boyfriend by my side. They were once the only men in my closest circle and now they were just feeling threatened. “Wait, is he the guy you told me about? The one who crashed his parents' car, because he was trying to overtake a sports car?” he asked, faking confusion. God, I do love him. And I hate it when people try to make themselves relevant. 

“Ohh, yeah, that’s him.” I smiled cheekily and discreetly scratched the back of Chris' neck, which I knew he loved. 

“Ok, I think that’s enough reminiscing for today, isn’t it?” Sophie interrupted. 

I hated every part of the evening which consisted of talking to anyone outside of my closest circle. Fortunately, most of them left before us, so the atmosphere got better and better. 

A while later, Chris and I said our goodbyes to the remaining guests and left for our rental car. He was holding me tightly by his side, mostly because he got a bit hammered with the group of my friends that were actually acting normally around him. “I hate your friends,” he whined. “but I love your best friends.” 

“I’m glad to hear that.” I said as Chris walked me to the driver's seat. He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer to him as we faced each other. 

“I want to say something,” he blurted out in a nearly sober voice. “Before I do, I want you to know that even though I am a little drunk, I am fully aware of what I’m saying and I’m taking responsibility for my words. Also, I’m sorry for saying this on an ordinary night like that,” he took a deep breath. “I’m in love with you, very much.” 

My mouth formed a wide grin as I cupped his cheeks in my hands. “That’s very convenient,” I whispered against his lips and gave him a gentle kiss. “me too.” 

He pressed another kiss on my lips, this time harder, more hungrily. He tasted like scotch, cigarettes and mint gum. “I am so lucky that these guys are absolute garbage, I got to snag you for myself.” 

The next day, when we landed in Boston, we were both tired, but it was only 2pm. Chris was still feeling a little bit hangover from the night before. He slept through most of our flight, with his head on my lap. I’m sure it wasn’t comfortable for him, but he does love it when I play with his hair. 

I met Chris' oldest sister at the airport, where she came to pick us up. “Hi, I’m Carly,” She greeted me and hugged. “It’s so nice to finally meet you.” 

“You too,” I smiled. 

“They’re all dying to see you,” She cheered. “And Chris, the kids are going to go crazy once you walk through the door.” 

“I’m not gonna be a fun uncle today, I’m sooo hangover.” Chris whined. “We're going straight to bed.” 

“Speak for yourself, Evans.” I said. 

I was a little bit nervous when we reached Chris' family house. He’s always told me how close they are, especially his mother and him and I really wanted to make a good impression. That’s why I didn’t travel in my most comfortable clothes and chose something more presentable. 

We entered the house and Chris was almost immediately tacked down to the ground by three children. “Oh God, they're gonna kill me! Help!” he shouted. 

Chris’ mum came out to greet us. “Oh, Emily! I’m so glad he’s finally brought you here!” chucked. “I've been hearing about you from Scott for months now.” 

“Hope it's only the good things.” I smiled. 

“Oh, definitely,” she smiled. “Let my get you something to eat. Chris, please take your luggage to your bedroom.” 

Chris just made a strange sound as he was surrounded by his nephews. 

Lisa made an excellent lasagne and salad (amongst other things). I was literally in a food coma. Chris couldn’t stop laughing at me and my post-meal facial expressions. “I always try to make her eat more and you accomplished that in just one hour, mom. Amazing.” 

“You’re making it sound like I’m starving myself, but there’s just a lot of things I shouldn’t eat.” I explained. “I mean, I haven’t had a coffee in ages.” 

Chris nodded. “True, I have no idea how she does it.” 

“Emily, you should let me know what you wouldn’t want to eat,” Lisa suggested. “Chris should've let me know...” 

“Oh, no, no. Please, don’t go out of your way for me. I can eat everything...” 

“Except for brussels, asparagus...” Chris started to count on his fingers. 

I’m not gonna lie, I was enjoying the attention Chris’ niece was giving me. As soon as Chris told her about my Cinderella role, Millie kept asking me about my dress, the prince, carriage. I showed her pictures of myself on the set and she looked like I was her idol already. 

“I should dump you solely for that comment at the table.” I snapped, laying in bed as Chris was changing. Everyone left for some event at Carly's school and we decided to stay in and take a nap. “I loved that lasagne and now I’m afraid your mom is never going to make it again. I intend on keeping our relationship going just for that lasagne.” 

“Ouch,” he gasped and lied shirtless next to me. I was wearing a hoodie of his I found in his wardrobe. He said that it was older than my second teeth. “But seriously – I haven’t brought any girl here in a very long time, so mom is incredibly excited. She actually wants to take you to the theatre tomorrow.” 

“Really?” I asked excitedly. “What for?” 

“I don’t know, probably just to hang out together,” he shrugged. “And then, my dad is coming over for dinner.” 

“Right, ok,” I nodded, moving my head to lay on his bicep. “And the day after tomorrow... It’s your birthday.” 

Chris pressed his lips into a thin line. “Yup, it is,” he sighed and brought me closer to press my torso against his. “Can we just not make a great deal out of it?” 

“You made a huge deal out of mine though, love.” 

“Yeah, but you weren’t turning 33 years old.” 

I sighed and lifted myself up to sit on his torso. I pressed my hands against his firm chest. “Your age isn’t going to stop me from preparing celebrations, Evans,” I grinned. “I mean, everything is already prepared, you’re not getting away.” I leaned down to give him a kiss. “I loved my birthday this year,” I whispered. “I want to do something equally great for you, so let me do this, you dumbass.” 

He burst into laughter as I pressed my mouth against his collarbone tattoo. “Oh, I love you,” He grabbed my side and pulled me closer. “You’re just... flawless.” 

I pulled back to look him in the eyes. His beautiful blue eyes were still tired from the night before. His hair was a little messy from laying on the bed, but it might have also been my fault. I leaned down to give his nose a quick kiss. “I love you too, handsome.” 

Chris moved his hand down to the curve of my ass. “How about we use the time alone we got to have a little fun?” he asked. “I mean, we are in my childhood home. An opportunity like that won’t happen again soon.” 

I sat back. “Did you just say you love me and then suggest having sex?” I tilted my head to the side. 

He shrugged. “I don’t know, can’t remember, I’m an old man.” 

I giggled at his comment and wanted to actually start the fun, but we heard the door open downstairs. I sighed. “Well, that sums up the fun for the day.” 

“Come ‘ere, baby,” he whispered. “Let’s just pretend we're taking a nap or else the kids will attack me again.” He spooned me, wrapped his arms around me and brought my back close to his chest. “Goodnight, love.” 

Even though I was only hoping to sleep for like an hour, I ended up sleeping through the whole night. I woke up around 8 am. The bed was empty, so I got up and found my leggings in the suitcase. I opened the door quietly and went downstairs, where I found Chris in the kitchen. 

“Oh, hello, sleepy head,” he got up off the stool and walked up to me and gave me a kiss on the forehead. 

“Hi,” I answered. “I can’t believe I slept for so long.” I counted the hours and I slept for almost 12 hours non-stop. 

“You went through 2 months of shooting on maximum 5 hours of sleep every night, you deserve some more time to rest.” He whispered against my hair. 

Lisa came into the kitchen as Chris was making me a tea. “Oh, you’re up! I was afraid we wouldn’t get the chance to spend some time together,” she said. “I’m going to the theatre in a while, would you want to join me?” 

“Of course! Just give me a few minutes to take a shower and get dressed.” I smiled and sprinted upstairs. 

“She's gonna have energy to deal with those kids, she spent 13 hours in bed and woke up after me,” Chris said to Lisa. “It barely ever happens, Mom. Never.” 

It was one of the quickest showers of my life. I didn't want Lisa to wait too long for me, so I tried to hurry. 

Soon enough we were in a car driven by Chris. He was supposed to drop us off at the theatre and head to the gym. I was a bit nervous about spending time alone with Lisa, but I trusted Chris' words and knew that she was nothing but a kind person. 

“I’ll pick you up at 2, alright?” he waved as we left the car. 

Lisa let me watch a few rehearsals with her and it kind of brought back my memories from school and university. Those kids were already taking acting more seriously then I ever did. I sat there in the audience and watched their rehearsal. The teacher asked me to find something I thought they could improve, but honestly I didn’t see myself as any kind of authority in that matter. “You know, the last time I did any kind of theatre work was back in university, which wasn’t that long ago, but I was always more focused on films.” I explained. “The one thing I can tell you, is that I found meditation to be very helpful, because I couldn’t really mute the sound of the audience.” 

“It also helps with auditions, filming, social interactions,” I added. “You need to be incredibly confident, don’t let people interrupt you, you’re the one on stage and they paid to see you.” 

I watched the rehearsal until the end and then Lisa took me to her office. Even though I knew she wouldn’t question me like it was an interrogation, I was a little bit nervous, as it was our first time completely alone together. 

“I love it here,” I admitted. “It kind of reminds me of my time in uni when I actually did theatre work. Of course, it wasn’t anything involving dance and singing, because it’s absolutely not my thing.” 

“Oh, I’m sure you’d do just fine,” she assured me. “I saw your new movie a month ago and I really enjoyed it. I’ve actually seen a few of your movies since Chris told me about you. I do like how you don’t stick to one genre and it always turns out great.” 

“Thank you so much,” I said, my voice shaking. “I’m sorry, I’m just a bit nervous. I feel like I’m at a job interview, but not because of you. I just have that natural fear of saying something stupid in important situations.” 

Lisa laughed at me, but in a kind way. She admitted that she was a little surprised and hesitant, when Chris told her that I was younger – only because he always dated his age – but it didn’t take her much time to realize how important I was to him and that we were God door each other. With that said, I could feel tears pool in my eyes. Suck it up. “You know, whenever Chris brings a girl home, I’m a bit nervous. I do trust his taste, but the last one was a total miss, if I have to be honest. The main problem is that he hasn’t had a long-time relationship for a very long time now and I’m worried. You know, I’m fine with whoever he goes for, but I want him to be happy. And I know that for him, happiness means marriage and, eventually, kids.” 

I knew what she meant. And she was trying to get information in the most polite way possible. “Lisa, I love him. It’s still early to even think about it, though. The one thing I can say is that I’m sure Chris is going to be a great husband and father, so if we work out for a time long enough, I’ll happily help him make his dreams come true. I don’t know how much it’ll take for me. It could be 2 years, could be 5.” 

Lisa sighed and smiled. “You’re both really similar. You like the same things, I can see that you’re comfortable around each other,” she admitted. “Chris called me after your first date and said that you’ve known each other for a day and he felt like he was just wasting his time before he met you.” I couldn’t help but smile as the said that. I knew that our relationship was moving fast, but knowing how he felt about me in such early stages... “I really hope you two work out, because I’m looking forward to seeing my son as happy as he is with you more frequently.” 

At this point I was just grinning like a crazy person. “Oh God, I have no idea what to say now.” 

I was actually holding back tears after our little chat. Lisa was an incredible woman and I saw that she cared for her children, but not in an invasive way. She didn’t make me feel like she’d hunt me down if something went wrong in our relationship. 

Lisa stayed in a little longer, but I went outside where Chris was waiting for us. He’s changed his clothes after visiting the gym, his hair was pulled back but in a messy way. “How was your day?” he asked as I kissed him on the cheek. 

“Well, I watched a few rehearsals, talked to the kids and then had a nice talk with your mum,” I answered. “She nearly made me cry.” 

“What?” he seemed confused. 

“She almost made me cry by being so nice and supporting of us.” I explained with a big grin on my face. 

“Oh, that sounds more like her,” he said, wrapping his arm around me. “Now, will you tell me how is it possible that my filming schedule has been conveniently pushed back a day, so I don’t have to work on my birthday?” 

I just shrugged. “I have no idea, BUT I bet you should thank your awesome girlfriend for that. Just in case.” 

He pulled me into a hug and I felt his tense muscles against my body. “Thank you so much and seeing you excited for what you’ve prepared makes me even more anxious to find out what it is.” He whispered against my neck. 

I leaned back a bit to face him. “You’re gonna love it, I promise.” I said and kissed him gently. I loved Chris' habit of pulling me tightly against his body whenever we kissed. It made me just forget about the whole world and focus on him. 

Lisa soon joined us and we drove back home, where I helped Lisa cook dinner. The whole family came over in the evening, apart from Scott, who was in LA. I got to meet Chris’ dad, Bob. He spent some time with us. I couldn’t believe how similar Chris and his father looked. 

I was actually trying to observe how they acted, because, well. They’ve been divorced for quite a while now and have adult children, which required them to spend a lot of time together. But, as I suspected, it was an incredibly friendly and respectful relationship. It was obvious that something just hadn’t worked out and they both decided to get a divorce. I could only hope that my parents will be exactly the same. 

Chris and Bob went out to the garden to play with the kids, while I stayed in the kitchen with Lisa. “So, Chris has told me about your parents' separation...” 

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I was actually watching you and Bob and the way you are after getting a divorce.” 

“Oh, we’ve been divorced for almost, what, 15 years,” she laughed. “Right now, I can barely remember what it was like being married to him. It was tough at the beginning, but the marriage just stopped working out for us, so we decided to end it.” 

“I hope my parents are like that once they get a divorce. I’d hate to be just put in between them.” 

“I’m sure it will be fine. It’s much easier to separated when you don’t have small children anymore. There’s no custody battle, which is one of the reasons why divorce cases take so long.” 

Lisa was right. I kept thinking about my parents like they couldn’t handle their own life. I’m not dependent on them anymore, so I don’t have to worry about their relationship. Yes, it would be ideal if they stayed friends, but it’s their life. 

In the evening, we all sat down in the living room, played some board games and watched a movie. I felt incredibly comfortable amongst Chris' family and some friends who have joined us. I was very sad about us leaving tomorrow and having to go to bed early in order to get more sleep. “I love your family.” I whispered against his chest as we laid in bed. 

“That's convenient.” He pressed a kiss against my forehead. 

The next day, we spent some time in the house, but had to rush to the airport in the afternoon. 

“When are you going to tell me where we're going?” Chris asked as we entered the airport. 

“I’d like to keep it a complete secret,” I answered. “Until an airport employee accuses me of kidnapping or something, I’m not spilling.” 

It was all carefully planned. I gave Chris earplugs and somehow, he still didn’t know out destination as we entered the plane. I couldn’t make him wear earplugs during the safety training, so that was where he found out. 

“Why are we going to Houston?” he seemed a bit confused. I just shrugged, so he knew I wasn’t going to say anything. 

Chris was a bit desperate to find out what was going on. He kept saying that it’s his birthday and I should tell him. Then he tried to bribe me with sexual favours, which also did not work out. To be honest, I thought he would’ve had it figured out by now, but he still was clueless. 

I had it all prepared – we drove to the hotel and then to the NASA Space Center, where I not only booked us a trip around the center, but also paid for it to be open for 3 more hours, so we could have a private tour and then, after it gets dark, use some of the telescopes. 

“You have got to be kidding me, Emilia.” Chris blurted out as I put a NASA cap on his head. “That is so fucking awesome.” 

He was like a child in Disneyland. No, scratch that. Chris was acting like himself in Disneyland. I loved the fact that it was thanks to me and he was actually enjoying himself. He was such a fucking dork and I loved every second of it. 

Chris kept asking questions to our guide and I was actually stunned by the knowledge he already had. 

I’m getting him a meeting with Neil Degrasse Tyson next year.


	5. Doppleganger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emilia and Chris work out some of their differences.

I swayed my body along to the music coming from the large speakers at the edge of the stage. Bastille were playing Durban Skies and I closed my eyes to enjoy the beautiful sounds.

_You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve_   
_And I have always buried them deep beneath the ground_   
_Dig them up; let's finish what we've started_   
_Dig them up, so nothing's left untouched_

I opened my eyes slowly as the song ended and the lead singer, Dan, started to talk to the audience. „Are you stoned?” Sebastian asked, standing right next to me, looking into my eyes carefully.

„What?” I narrowed my eyebrows. „Of course not.”

He tilted his head to the side, not letting it go. Well, he did let go, but just for another few songs, until the band left the stage. „So, what’s up? Why are you being so weird today?”

I sighed. „It's nothing, I guess is just wasn’t in the mood today.”

Seb stopped. „Bullshit,” he said. „You had an orgasm, as Chris put it, when you found out that I had tickets to see Bastille.”

I flinched a bit at the mention of Chris. „Let it go, Seba.”

„Oh my God, is it Chris?” he asked. „Have you guys been fighting? I mean it’s none of my business, but you’re both my friends and...”

„We're not fighting, Seb,” I interrupted him. „We broke up.”

Sebastian didn’t say anything and followed me, when I moved to start walking back to my car. I saw that he really wanted to ask, but didn’t know if he should.

“It happened two months ago,” I started as I settled in the driver's seat. “We had a fight and went our separate ways.”

“But why? You were so good together.” He shrugged, looking out the front window, as if searching for an answer.

“Chris is looking for a wife,” I stated. “and I’m just looking for a boyfriend.”

It had been a quiet night. Chris had seen my interview promoting a movie I’ve just filmed. It’s about a woman in her early twenties who gets pregnant and has an abortion, because the father of the baby isn’t willing to help her. After he finds out, he sues her, seeing this as an opportunity to get money.

In the interview, asked about my opinion on abortion, I said: “Well, I wouldn’t let myself get pregnant, if I didn’t actually want it to happen. But shit happens, you know? Pregnancy is a big deal and anyone who’s trying to restrain access to abortion is a terrorist. People think that it’s so easy, that it’s such an easy decision – it’s not. Which is why we need sex education, that’s what prevents abortion, not making it illegal.

And then, asked if I see myself settling down is the nearest future, I said: “Not for a long time, no. Having a family is a huge deal, I don’t feel like I'm ready for it.”

Chris didn’t like that. Not the idea of someone not wanting to settle down, of course. The idea of me, his girlfriend, not wanting to settle down right now.

_He come up to me and sat on the couch next to me. “What did you mean by that?”_

And that was the conversation I had feared. At more than 6 months of being together, Chris was comfortable enough to ask me about the possibility of being married and having children together. I still hadn’t been ready to talk about it, although I did think about it constantly.

_“Chris, I’m 22,” I said. “I might want to have children in the future, but it’s definitely not now.”_

_“And I’m 33.” he stated. “And, uh, I think I’d prefer it to happen in a nearer future.”_

In this very moment, I knew it was possibly the end of our relationship. Neither of us was going to give up on our needs. It was basically the moment, when we finally stopped lying to each other.

_“Chris, I definitely won’t have kids before I’m 25. It might be 25 or 30. I can’t tell you that right now.”_

_“Well, I’m not getting any younger...” he sighed, sensing the same thing as me._

The whole conversation had been very awkward. We didn’t know what to say, because we were faced with an obvious thing we should’ve discussed months ago.

_“Me neither.” I whispered, looking at the floor._

The conversation had escalated to a fight very quickly, though. It was a fight between two people who wanted to be together, but had non-negotiable terms.

_“Are you really that afraid of commitment? You know I’m committed and responsible, you say you love me and yet you still can’t see yourself having a family with me in like 2 or 3 years!?”_

_By now, Chris was standing a few feet from the sofa. “I never said that! I only said that I cannot specify when I will definitely be ready to do that! It’s a big decision and I don’t want to regret it.” I explained, trying to be as calm as possible. The truth was, I was on the verge of tears._

_“For me, it sounds like you don’t trust me,” he shrugged. “It feels like we’re wasting each other’s time.”_

_I raised my eyebrows. Is he being serious right now? “Are you fucking kidding me right now? You should have started our first conversation with ‘Hey, just curious, you wanna have a kid real soon?’ You wouldn't have to waste your time on me.” I yelled._

_“You know very fucking well, that it's not what I meant.” He hissed. “But, yeah, we should've had that talk months ago. At least your commitment issues would've came out earlier.”_

_That was enough for me. From that moment I just yelled and yelled into his face about how he’s paranoid about anyone finding out too much about us, like he’s ashamed of me. About how he doesn’t want to confirm our relationship to the media, because he’s the one with commitment issues. And how he expects me to understand that he’s getting older and doesn’t want his children to be born too late, but at the same time doesn’t respect my choice of not having them until I’m at a certain point in my life._

_And that was the end._

“I can’t believe it happened 2 months ago,” Sebastian said in disbelief. “I can’t believe he would act like that.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it either.” I scratched the back of my head. “But that’s finished.”

I was sure that Sebastian wouldn’t just leave this matter. Too much of his party humor relayed on Chris' and mine relationship. I drove him back home and then back to mine.

The only thing keeping me going was work. I’ve had a busy couple of weeks and it’s been keeping my mind off the ugly break up. Tomorrow, I’m renewing my contract with Jaguar at their dealership in New York and giving some interviews afterwards. Next week, I’m flying back to the UK to film Top Gear. Thankfully, I hadn’t had to fly to LA for the last 2 months and it’s been refreshing.

The next day I woke up just in time to start preparing for my meetings. I had started to spend more and more time in bed, as if I were in the first stages of depression. My period didn’t help either. Thankfully, Hannah was always beside me and my friends were only one phone call away. I still had some trouble sharing stuff like that with my family, but it was still alright between us.

The car drove me to the Jaguar dealership in Manhattan, where I saw photographers waiting for me, as it was a media event. I went inside to greet the owner, who proceeded to show me some of their newest models. Later, I signed a promotion deal stating that I would become an ambassador for Jaguar. They also “premiered” a commercial starring Tom Hiddleston and I.

I took some pictures next to the cars, had a few short interviews talking about the cars, my preferences in cars and if I’m actually interested. “I grew up with two older brothers, so I don’t think I ever even expressed any interest in tea parties or dolls. They made me into an actual tomboy. My mom tried making me wear those cute dresses and I liked them, but always ended up coming back all dirty. I like cars very much, I know a lot about them, so I’m incredibly happy to be partnering with a company that is one of the best in the business.”

It was my time to leave, as I had a few more things to do. On my way back to the car, I found that the crowd outside had doubled at least. “Emilia, have you seen Chris’ new photos with Minka?”

“Are you guys off?”

“Is he cheating on you?”

I was a little bit distraught when I heard the first question. My heart sunk a little bit. It took me no time to find my phone, once the car door was closed.

I googled “Chris Evans” and felt years pool in my eyes.

_What’s going on? Chris Evans was spotted out with his ex, Minka Kelly. The pair have a rich history as an on and off couple. This shouldn’t be a surprise, right? It is, because the Captain America actor has been in a relationship with his Avengers co-star and gorgeous British actress, Emilia Dawson, since earlier this year and there have been no rumors of a break up._

Looking at this now, we do have to admit that Mr. Evans seems to have a pretty defined type. Kelly and Dawson do seem to look alike these days.

I looked at the photo of them walking their dogs and suddenly, I felt like cancelling all my plans. Until now, I still felt like our break up was just a temporary thing and we would find our way back to each other. The feeling of being replaced by just “another model” of me was making me nauseous.

I tried to pull myself together and make sure I looked as best as I could, when I walked into the studio. The make up artist has worked with me on numerous occasions and I saw that she wanted to ask me, but she never did. She did a great job giving my red eyes though.

It was a Vogue cover photo shoot, so I tried to switch my emotions off for the time being and do my best while I was there.

Hannah joined me when the photo shoot had already started and she could tell I knew. Normally, she would ask the photographer to cut the shoot short, but it’s not a thing you can do when it’s Vogue and Mario Testino.

By the time we were actually finished, I was pretty sure, I only wanted to bury myself under my bedsheets. Working on a photo shoot gave me too many opportunities for my mind to just wander off to places I didn’t want it to go to. I didn’t even ask them to remove my make up, because I desperately needed to go home.

“Em, I’m pretty sure it’s nothing,” Hannah assured me on our way to the car. “They’re probably just friends. And she’s not very busy, so maybe she was the only one he had.”

“They’re not friends. Things ended badly between them,” I snapped. “Can you get me an appointment at a hair-dressers today?” I asked.

Hannah raised her eyebrow and lifted her phone immediately. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Three hours later, I was off the chair at a salon, sporting a new haircut – blonde, shoulder length hair styled into beautiful waves. To be honest, that was incredibly impulsive of me. And stupid, probably. The only reason I did that was to make sure I’m not known as her doppelganger. That’s how salty I am.

That didn’t help me, still. She’s older, doesn’t work as much as I do and they’ve known each other for years. They could be trying to get back together. I mean, she could be willing to give Chris what he wants, without making him wait. Hair colour isn’t going to change anything.

As I was getting deeper and deeper into assumptions, I had already ordered my food for the evening. I asked the driver to let me out a little bit further away from my building, because I wanted some air. It was dark already and the streets seemed to me more quiet than usual, so it was a perfect moment for a short walk.

When I reached the reception of my building, the man behind the counter called me. “Ms. Dawson!”

I turned to face him. “Yes?”

“There’s something for you.” He barely managed to put a huge bouquet on the counter. I noticed a variety of flowers, many of which I couldn’t even name. “I’ll bring it upstairs for you.”

The receptionist set the bouquet on my kitchen island and once I was alone, I moved it to the middle. As it was so big, it was in a decorative wooden box. There was an envelope on the side. I saw “Emilia" written on it and immediately knew who it was from.

_Emilia,_

_I am so sorry it took me such a long time to do this. I think you can imagine how many drafts I’ve created for this letter. At least I hope you can._

_I had started to regret everything I said the moment you left my house. Or the moment you went to sleep to the guest bedroom, before the morning you left. I wish I had just shut my mouth, because this last month (I really have been writing this for a long time) has been simply one of the most awful periods of my life (it’s easily in TOP3)._

_I don’t want to get into details here, because that would be just another time when I’m talking and you have to listen to my bullshit. I only want you to know I sincerely apologize for how insensitive I was, how I refused to look at your point of view. I cannot believe that it took me so much time to remember that 11 years ago, having a family wasn’t my priority either._

_I’ll be in New York tomorrow afternoon and I would love to see you. Let’s meet at 7pm in Central Park near the bench where you spilled a chocolate milkshake on your white pants (trousers). If you want to meet, please just text me “OK” and I will be there._

_I love you,_

_Chris._

I saw that different paragraphs were written with different pens, which meant didn’t write this letter during one sit-down. I looked all the way down to see a post scriptum.

_PS. I’ve just noticed the pictures paps took of me yesterday. How cliché will it be if I say that it wasn’t what it looked like?_

I grabbed my phone immediately, but then had to stop myself for a moment. Should I?

On one hand, a meeting means nothing. I don’t have to go back to him immediately. Or go back to him at all. On the other hand, I might just want to drop to my knees in front of him the moment I see him.

“Ok.” I texted.

“You’re such a stupid weak bitch.” I whispered to myself.

My food care just in time for it to stop overthinking and imagining how tomorrow’s gonna end. I played some comedy shows and tried to just forget about everything. It really helped.

The next day I didn’t have to go out anywhere. It was the day I wanted to spend on memorizing my lines and reading scripts for new potential projects. But was I able to focus on anything? Of course not.

I kept thinking how should I act around Chris or what should I tell him.

What if he just wants to apologize and leave? What if he decided that there’s too many differences between us? I mean, should I just let him put babies in me or what?

I wrapped my coat tight around myself as I crossed the road to enter Central Park. The spot we were supposed to meet at wasn’t far from the gate I was entering through, so I tried not to look too needy or ready for reconciliation.

I was a little bit of a petty bitch. I made myself look more than presentable, in case things didn’t go well. I needed him to know when he was missing. And that thing he was missing was a girl hopelessly in love with him, stopping herself from just jumping into his arms and kissing life out of him.

I turned into the next alley and there he was. He was wearing a leather jacket with dark jeans and a baseball cap. Also, he brought Dodger with him. At least I can always say that I’m only crying because I’ve missed Dodger.

 

Chris was sitting, but when he noticed (and recognized) me, he stood up immediately. “Hey,” he took the NASA cap off as I approached him. “Wow, I barely recognized you, Emily...” He said.

“Um, hi.” I said, kneeling down to greet Dodger, who seemed to be very excited to see me.

“I mean, you look great, the colour suits you... Anyway, thank you for agreeing to see me,” Chris said, sitting back down on the bench. I sat next to him, keeping my distance. Once he was sure it was me, Dodger put his head on my lap expecting me to scratch him behind his ears. “I know it must’ve been a tough decision after what I said.”

“We both said things we shouldn’t have said.” I sighed, looking up from Dodger to Chris.

There was a moment of silence between us. We both wanted to say something, but were too afraid. The good thing was, I think we were on the same page. We both wanted to get back together.

“I’ll start,” Chris mumbled. “The last few weeks have been a torture. Not just because we broke up, but how we broke up. I hated the fact that I said some stupid, demanding things and then had no courage to reach out and apologize. I acted like a selfish idiot and the fact that I said things that hurt you has been keeping me up at night.”

“Chris, we both said things we didn’t mean,” I said. “We’re in different phases and it will cause conflicts. The only solution for that is finding other…”

“I don’t want anyone else.” He stated firmly. “I… I’m guessing you saw the photos of me with Minka. You know we had a very ugly break up. She called me asking to meet and fix this. I’m on good terms with all of my exes. I thought that maybe, if I talk to her, maybe it’ll help me to be a better partner to you. She actually wanted to get back together when she found out about us, but it wasn’t something I was interested in.” He paused for a moment. “Anyway, I thought about what you said and what I said. I was being my most selfish self in years. I knew how old you were when we met and I chose to just hope that your goals will meet mine. I just feel like… I hope it doesn’t make it sound trivial, but I feel like you tick all the boxes and I just don’t want to lose you…”

That was really all I needed to just run back into Chris’ arms. I mean, that’s all I’ve been thinking about since I saw him. “Chris, let me tell you something now,” I tucked some loose hair behind my ear. “I overreacted. I had been afraid of that topic since the day we met and the moment we started talking about it, I panicked. To be honest, I’ve always said that if I even choose to be a wife and a mother, it’ll be before I’m 30.” I explained, noticing a faint smile on Chris’ face. “And I hope it’s with you because I know you’re going to be an amazing father and husband.” I reached out with my hand to touch his.

He looked down at our intertwined fingers and smiled. “So are we on again? Because my mom’s going to kill me if we aren’t.”

I smirked. “I think we might be, but there’s still some less important stuff we need to discuss.”

Chris nodded. “I know, I know. But it’s a good start.”

I got even closer to Chris and nuzzled my nose into the crook of his neck. I inhaled his scent lightly and felt secure for the first time in weeks. “I’ve missed you so much, Evans.”

Chris wrapped his arms around my waist and brought me closer to him. “Let's go. Dodger is getting cold and it’s getting too dark here for me to look at you.”

We chose to go back to Chris' hotel because he had Dodger's food there. We agreed I’d spend the night there and then we’d move to mine.

Chris was taking a shower and I was just scrolling through my Instagram feed, when his phone ringed. It was right next to me on the bed, so I saw that the photo of me, sleeping with Dodger by my side was still his background. I smiled at it, but then got the stupid idea of going through Chris' phone.

No. No. No. No. “Em, can you check who texted me?”

I sighed and unlocked his phone (we know each other's codes). “It's Scott. He’s asking how it went.”

“Oh, uh, he means our meeting. So if you could just text him that we’re fine now.” Chris shouted back, so I took a photo of myself with my thumb up and a smile and sent it to him. Unfortunately, I am a stupid idiot, so right after that I checked Chris’ inbox to find text exchange with Minka from 2 days ago. There was nothing he hadn’t told me about, which made me feel way worse about myself.

“My mom was actually very mad at me for our break up,” Chris said as he left the bathroom in a towel around his waist. “She yelled at me and stuff.”

“I didn’t even tell my parents. My mum would probably freak out that it’s their fault, so I decided to wait to see if it’s... definite.”

Chris sat next to me, I laid across the bed so my head was on his lap. He put his hand on my cheek and stroked the flushed skin delicately. “I’m glad it’s not definite.”

I looked into his eyes for a moment. He was smiling so brightly; my heart was melting. “Chris, I checked your texts with Minka just a moment ago, I’m sorry.”

I was actually expecting him to be at least a little bit mad. “I’m not surprised,” he shrugged. “I mean, I did meet up with her 2 days before I came up here to ask you for forgiveness.”

“Yeah, but you explained and I should’ve believed you. And I’m not saying I didn’t, but I just saw the thread and... And by the way, I dyed my hair yesterday after seeing your photos with her and being compared to her.”

Chris’ eyes went wide open. “Are you fucking kidding me?”

“I know, it was really stupid.” I sighed. “I hated the idea of you being attracted to me only because I look like your ex.”

Chris combed my hair with his fingers delicately. “Please, stop. I love YOU, not your hair or whatever," Chris leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Let’s just forget about all of this and everything else tonight, ok?” He moved to my nose and then my lips.

I forgot how much I loved the feeling of his lips on mine. Especially now that he was growing his beard back. I love that rough sensation against my cheek every now and then.

I reached out with my hand to tangle my fingers into Chris' hair. He bit my lower lip delicately as his hand travelled to my neck. “I’ve missed your soft skin, miss.” He whispered against my lips. “And you always smell like strawberries, I’ve missed that in bed.”

I smiled and licked his upper lip playfully. “I missed your dog.”

Chris grinned and looked around the room. “Well, he seems to be asleep in the living room, so how about we do some catching up?” he moved his finger slowly across my collarbone, but I grabbed it and intertwined our fingers.

“Someone seems to have forgotten what time of the month it is.”

He seemed to be confused for a moment and then realized what I was talking about. “Ohh, right,” he sighed. “Hot chocolate, then?”

I got off his lap and walked up to my handbag. “I'll go take a shower. Can you give me like a shirt or something?”

“Yeah, I’ll leave it on the bed.” Chris nodded and reached for his phone.

I went into the bathroom. Since the first night I spent with Chris, I’ve been carrying spare underwear in case of such emergency. I took a quick hot shower, pulled on the underwear and quickly left the steamy bathroom so I could jump right under the covers. To be honest, Chris was incredibly pleased with me being topless in bed, but once there, I grabbed his shirt and put it on.

“Aw, why won’t you sleep without it.” He moaned.

“It’s not that comfortable when you actually have boobs.” I snuggled into his hot (literally) chest and hid myself under the covers. “This is a really nice hotel, why is it so cold in here?” I whispered.

“It's not, you just take insanely hot showers.” Chris lowered himself to face me and pulled me against him. “Now I can finally sleep in peace.”

The next morning I woke up with my cheek pressed against Chris' naked back. I could hear he was talking to someone on the phone, trying to be really quiet.

“... I mean, we did just get back together, Ma. I have to give her some space.” He whispered. “I can’t just say that were going to Boston for Thanksgiving...”

“Get me the Lisa Lasagne and I’m in.” I murmured against his skin before kissing it.

“Ok, she said yes.” Chris chuckled and listened to Lisa speak for a moment. “Mom wants to talk to you...” he handed me the phone over his shoulder.

I took it and turned to lay on my back. “Hey, Lisa.”

“Emilia, you have no idea how glad I am to hear your voice! Your break up had an awful impact on Christopher.” She started. “Anyway, so are you coming to Boston for Thanksgiving? I know you don’t celebrate it back home, so I though you could spend it with us.”

“I’d love to, very much. I’m looking forward to all of the delicious food you will make.” I said as Chris wrapped himself around my waist.

“I’ll definitely make more of that lasagne you like so much.” She assured me. “I’ll let you two spend some time alone, now that you’re back together. See you in a few weeks!”

“Bye!” I said and hung up. Chris was already peppering my lower stomach with delicate kisses. I tangled my fingers into his hair to scratch his head. “You won’t give up, right?”

He looked up at me while slowly lifting my (his) shirt. “I just can’t help myself.” He answered, taking my nipple between his teeth and pulling lightly. “I mean, people have period sex.”

He moved up to nibble on my neck and I acted my back a little at the sensation. “I’m off the pill.” I said. “I suppose you don’t have a condom.”

Chris fell back onto the bed next to me and sighed. “We should get going then, I’m really close to dying from blue balls.”

Once we were out, I held on to Chris' arm as we walked back to my flat and holding Dodger's lead. Chris decided to reschedule some of his meetings for today, so he wanted to walk me back and leave his stuff.

“Now that we're back on, how do you feel about me posting stuff about us on Instagram?” I asked. “I mean, like, sometimes, not all the time.”

He sighed. “Yeah, but not too much, you know I like to keep it all low-key.”

When we reached my building, Chris left his baggage in my bedroom and walked up to me. I was spread out on the sofa, waiting for my prince charming to pay attention to me. “I should be back in two hours and then we can do whatever you want, alright?”

I nodded as Chris' hand found my chin to keep me in place while he bent down to kiss me. It was slow and sensual. I could barely hold back a moan. “Don’t kiss me like that, because I won’t let you out.” I murmured.

"I won't be long, baby girl," he grinned. "Take a nap, choose a movie, I'll buy all the chocolate snacks I can find on the way, alright?"

"God, Christopher."


	6. New Year's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emilia and Chris celebrate the first months of the New Year.

I looked around the living room, leaning on the kitchen counter, still not believing what my eyes were looking at. Chris' house was packed with people, friends and family, also people neither of us knew and some friends form work. Why?

Well, my boyfriend is a kiss-ass.

Because I had spent Thanksgiving with his family, he came over to London for Christmas. He also finally got to meet my brothers, their wives and some extended family. If I thought he was nervous around my parents, then I have no idea how to describe his behaviour around Matt and Dan. He was just like a nerd trying to fit in with school's sports team.

Anyway, the moment Matt mentioned how they had no NYE plans, he blurted out:

_„We're actually having a party at my house with some friends, you should visit!”_

We were not planning on having any sort of a party before he had said that. I was hoping for a quiet night in and some sexy times. But that was ruined, because Chris just needs everyone to like him. I even bought a new La Perla set...

I brought my glass of Martini mixed with Sprite to my lips and watched my boyfriend walk up to me. „Babe, have you even spoken to anyone since the guests arrived?” he asked, taking a spot next to me and gently nudging my shoulder.

„Kate, Sebastian, Armie, Simon...” I counted on my fingers. „I also spoke to the caterer you hired yesterday when you finally realised that a few packs of Doritos won’t be enough.”

Chris chuckled. „I feel like you’re going to hang this over my head for a long time.”

„True, true,” I sighed. „A much longer time than we’ve now gone without sex, babe.”

I knew that normally in this state of intoxication, Chris would have his hands all over me by now. But the presence of my brothers, both of whom were younger than him and smaller, seemed to stop him. Even though they weren’t really the overprotective type and seemed to like him a lot. Like, I understood that he didn’t want to have sex in my family home. But right now, my brothers were staying in bedrooms on a different side of the house and there was no way they would hear us. He was still afraid. „By the way, are you still going to be afraid of having sex with me, your own girlfriend, in your house after they leave? I mean, they could install surveillance or something...”

Chris shook his head in disbelief. „Is that mean, sex deprived side of you my fault or are you just like that?”

I tilted my head to the side a little and turned to face him. My arms wrapped around his waist as I looked him deeply in the eyes. „Come on, Daddy.” I whispered.

Now that’s a whole another story. A few days before we flew to London, I found a list of most common kinks people admit to liking on BuzzFeed or something and went through it with Chris. I always knew Chris liked to dominate and I was okay with that, but once „Daddy kink” was brought up he went kind of shy. „I’m not into age play or anything, but I might be into this particular... nickname.”

So we gave it a try and I ended up moaning „Daddy" and whimpering against the sheets.

Anyway, I was hoping bringing that up would get him back in the game, but it was a no go. “What am I gonna do about you, you little minx?”

“If I were you, I would just spank me until I’ve learned my lesson.” I whispered into his ear and gave his cheek a quick kiss. “I’m going to check on Scarlett.” I then said and quickly escaped the crime scene, leaving my boyfriend with his more and more in colour blue.

I walked up to her and sat beside her. “What’s up, the non-drinking version of yourself?”

“Please, don’t bring that up,” he shook her head, as if trying to erase her memories. “It’s my fourth glass of Sprite and I’m just trying to convince myself that it’s not non-alcoholic, it’s just weak.”

I giggled a little and put my head on her shoulder. “I mean, at least you have a good reason – you’re breast feeding.” I rubbed her shoulder. “The only reason I ever leave a party sober is because I’m Chris' designated driver.”

“Men are like babies, so I’m not surprised.” She shrugged. “Anyway, how are things? When am I getting my spa weekend?”

“Well, we broke up around the same time you had a baby, so...” I started.

“What? How did I not know anything about it?” Scarlett seemed surprised.

“You didn’t? We had a row about um, children and commitment,” I tucked a loose stead of hair behind my ear. “We were off for a few weeks.”

“Was that when I saw those photos of him and the ex?” she asked. “Because I was 100% positive that they just bumped into each other or something.”

“He just met up with her to sort their shit out.” I explained.

“I’m gonna have to talk to this idiot,” she put her hands on my knees. “I've spoken to him about the children shit like a few months ago and I really thought he wouldn’t do that.”

“It’s okay, it’s all sorted out, now,” I assured her, but then realised what she had said. “Wait what?”  

Scarlett sighed and looked around to see if anyone could hear us. “Em, I’ve known him for years. Chris is fucking weird, because he wants to have that picture-perfect family, a perfect partner and all that shit, yet he also wants a lot of independence in a relationship and someone who’s not clingy. I only spoke to him on the set to make sure he knew how, a lot of times, the words he says come out wrong and I just didn’t want you to break up because of a misunderstanding.”

“He never told me about it. How did he react?”

Scarlett shrugged. “I mean, he seemed to get it. I believed that until you told me about the break.”

I realised that we were just going back to the past again and decided to end the topic. “It doesn’t matter now, Scarlett. Thank you, anyway. You are like my guardian angel in this relationship.”

She smiled and put her head on my shoulder. “I’m happy to have an ally in this testosterone driven group. Chris has been sending less and less gross stuff on the group text since you to have started dating, I really appreciate that.”

“Yeah, I make him show me everything he wants to send, so I’m some sort of a filter.” I laughed and leaned back to feel a pair of hands on my shoulders.

I looked up to see Chris with a wide grin on his face, showing his perfect teeth. “Babe, I need your help with Dodger.” He said. “We need to give him those pills, so he can sleep through the fireworks.”

“Oh, right. I almost forgot.” I stood up and followed Chris to the bedroom, where Dodger chose to hide. Once we were in the hallway Chris suddenly stopped me and lifted me up to put me over his shoulder. I squealed, but no one heard it because of the loud music in the living room. “Chris!”

I felt a hard slap on my ass as we entered the bedroom, where Dodger was sleeping peacefully. Chris locked us up in the bathroom and sat me on the counter. He put his hands on both sides of my hips and looked me straight in the eyes. “You gonna be a good girl for me, baby?” he whispered.

“Yes.” I grinned.

Chris raised one eyebrow. “Yes, what?”

Oh. “Yes, Daddy.”

Chris smiled and lifted me up to pull up my dress. “You're gonna get what you’ve been asking for.” His hands started to gently massage my butt cheeks. He mumbled against my lips right before kissing me hard. “What do you want, huh?”

We broke the kiss and I looked up into his eyes. “You really want me to say it, don’t you?”

Chris grinned and nodded. “Very much.”

I got off the counter and reached down to unbuckle his belt. “I want your cock, Daddy.” I whispered before connecting our lips again. Chris pushed me back against the counter as his tongue slid into my mouth. I felt his fingers on my pussy, tickling me through the thin material of my panties, making me gasp for air. He pushed away from my lips and lowered his face to my neck, pulling on my hair to give himself more access.

“You’re in a lot of trouble, young lady,” Chris whispered before gently biting the skin on my collarbone. He pulled my top down a bit to reveal my breast. He locked his lips around my nipple and bit on it, making me arch my back. I felt his lips form a smile against my skin. “I just love how you can’t get enough of my touch.”

I tangled my fingers into his hair and smiled as he levelled his head with mine to connect our lips again. His one hand was still on my breast, massaging his thumb against the soft, sensitive flesh, while the other hand slipped inside my panties to slide two fingers into me. I gasped into his mouth.

I moved to my knees and pulled his trousers down, enough to reveal his boxers. I love the expressions Chris makes when I tease him, so I couldn’t help myself. I ran the tip of my finger along Chris’s length, looking up into his eyes. His lips were slightly parted, a sign of anticipation. I pulled his boxers down, but only by a few centimetres. I ran my tongue along his clothed shaft, from his balls to the tip.

“Baby, we don’t have much time.” Chris warned me.

I looked up to see his lips slightly parted and eyes shut. “You made me wait, though.” I smirked, but not for long.

Chris moved rapidly to lift me up and turn me to face the mirror. “Fucking tease,” he whispered, moving my hair out of his way to access my neck. He pressed his cock against my butt, as his teeth grazed on the skin of my neck. “We can save foreplay for later, alright?”

I nodded, smiling. Chris’ hand reached to the front of my panties, under my skirt and started to rub my clit. My back arched immediately after a long lack of touch, my legs turned into jelly and Chris put his other hand on my lower stomach to hold me still against his body.

I reached back to pull Chris’ boxers down, but he pushed me against the counter and grabbed both my hands behind my back to limit my movements. He lowered the underwear himself, both his and mine. Seconds later I felt his tip brush against my entrance. Oh, so he can tease me. Even though I was dreaming about him inside me, I loved the sensation. “Fuck,” I moaned against the cold surface. “Let’s make this into our version of the midnight kiss.”

Chris stopped and I heard his short laugh behind me. “I think our guests might notice if we don't come back soon.”

I was just about to say something witty, when Chris slammed inside me. It took everything in me not to scream. I bit my bottom lip not to make a lot of noise, because I wanted to fucking scream.

Chris grabbed a handful of my ass and released my hands to slap my other cheek. He then reached out to my hair and pulled on it to make me face the mirror. „Look at me when I make you come, baby girl.” He groaned.

I kept my head up as Chris released my hair in order to move his fingers to my clit. I struggled to keep my eyes open, but I never broke the eye contact. Chris was looking hot as fuck with his lips slightly parted and a loose strand of hair on his forehead. “You look so good while taking my cock, baby.”

He lifted my leg to rest on the counter and give him better access. His moves became a bit more sloppy and I moaned loudly as he pulled out completely, only to bury himself completely inside me again. Chris smirked as he did is again, only this time he turned me around to face him before entering me again. With his arm around my back and hand on my cheek he brought my lips in for a kiss and continued thrusting into me, picking up the pace. “Come for me, baby. Come on.” He whispered between kisses, moaning into my mouth.

I felt my climax approaching and so was Chris’. His moans always become a bit more high pitched when he’s close. “Faster, Daddy. I'm so close.” I groaned against his shoulder before biting it gently.

We came within seconds from each other, panting heavily. I moved my arms from Chris’ shoulders and leaned back on the counter.

We were both breathing heavily and loudly for some time after finishing. I saw a few sweat drops on Chris’ forehead as he looked into the mirror behind me. “Your ass look so fucking good right now." He smirked and I turned around to see my bare butt with skirt gathered up above it. I saw a faint mark from when Chris had slapped me earlier.

As he was putting his pants on already, I turned back to him. “Maybe you should take a picture.” I suggested. “Save it to your wank folder.”

Chris chuckled and opened the bathroom door. Dodger was still asleep and no one in the living room seemed to notice that we had disappeared for a longer time than we should have. We took so long that it was almost midnight and everyone wanted to go outside and check out the fireworks. Chris wrapped me in his jacket and took champagne glasses for us. We all went out to the garden about a minute before midnight. Chris sat on a chair and brought me to sit on his lap. I wrapped my arm around his neck and took one champagne glass from him. “How are you not afraid of PDA in front of my brothers all of a sudden?” I asked, looking over to Dan who waved at me and couldn’t be less bothered by my sitting position.  

“I’m hoping I can get an immunity during this special occasion,“ he admitted, smiling. “Besides, I hope they know how madly I’m in love with their sister and sometimes I have to show my affection publicly.”

I grinned and wanted to comment on that, but apparently midnight had struck and everyone had gone crazy – screaming, laughing, hugging, kissing.

Chris captured my lips in a passionate kiss. I smiled against his lips and started to play with the hair on the back of his neck. “I love you so much, Christopher.” I whispered and leaned my forehead against his.

The next morning, I could barely move. It wasn’t because of sex, though – we fell asleep with Dodger still on the bed and it felt borderline weird to even think about having sex while he was here. Chris and I were actually the last ones to stop dancing. At some point, with the help of an appropriate amount of alcohol, I was so into the song, I almost started to treat my boyfriend like my personal dancing pole.

He was an incredible dancer, though. I was sure that there was nothing he could do wrong. He was great at everything. He lifted me up, swung me around, we nearly did the Dirty Dancing lift, but Matt stepped in and asked us to save it for a more sober evening. So we stopped and decided to start a karaoke contest, which we obviously won. Mackie was trying to get back at us, but we were unbeatable.

Now, I was in bed, Chris’ body tangled around mine. His face was pressed into my collarbone and arms around my waist. I reached back to grab my phone and snap a pic of us. I sent it to my group chat with Amy, Sophie and Mary with a message.

_“Look at him. I love this man so much.”_

As much as I wanted to stay like this for hours, I knew that Matt was probably up by now and I didn’t want him to be alone in the living room. I moved gently and pushed away from Chris, but he only tightened his grip around me.

I chuckled and he looked up at me. “Where do you think you’re going, pillow?” He mumbled. “My slumber isn’t over.”

“Babe, Matt is probably up already, I don’t want him to sit alone there.” I explained, running my fingers through his hair.

“I’ll let you go on one condition,” he started and looked up at me with his sleepy eyes. “Move in with me.”

I furrowed my eyebrows and had no idea what to say. “I thought you meant, like, to bring you coffee or something.”

“Nah, I can do that myself,” he shrugged. “So?”

I had no idea what to say, he really did surprise me. I mean, I haven’t really given moving in together any thought. We spend so much time together anyway and I practically live here with him anyway. “Um, can I think about it?”

Chris nodded. “I mean, yeah, but to be honest, I only wanted to make it official.”

I sat on the bed and watched his expression. “Why now?”

He shrugged. “I noticed that you still use your backup toothbrush here. I just don’t want you to feel like a guest in this house. I want it to be yours too.”

I smiled and climbed out of the bed. “I’ll let you know real soon, ok?” he sighed as I left the bedroom and went to the kitchen, where Matt was sitting in front of his laptop, as I predicted.

“Working already?” I asked, walking up to the fridge. I found a small bottle of water and drank it immediately.

“Yeah, but it’s just a few e-mails.” he smiled and closed the laptop. “So, is Chris still asleep?”

“No, he woke up around the same time as me.” I answered. “He, uh... He’s just asked me to move in with him.”

Matt raised his eyebrow. “Don’t you live together already?”

I smirked. “No, not, like, officially.”

I could see that Matt had no idea what to say. He wasn’t the kind of brother to get too involved in my relationships (and neither was Dan) because he knew I'd turn to him if I actually needed help. That’s also why I didn’t understand Chris’ fear of them. “So, do you want to move in with him?”

I sighed. “I don’t want to live in a house where his exes lived.” I admitted.

Matt smiled. “I think the both of you, of all people, have the comfort of just being able to buy a new house.”

I tilted my head back, thinking about what I should do. I mean, if our relationship continues then we are bound to move in together for real at some point. But I don’t want to live here, in this particular house. I don’t want to call this house “home". At least one of Chris’ exes lived here and I don’t want to just be another one.

“Uh, I’ll talk to him about it,” I said. “Anyway, have you seen this year’s  _Big Fat Quiz of the Year_? I haven’t.”

We went to the living room and I put on the show. Chris got up and came in fully clothed, ready to take a walk with Dodger. Matt volunteered to take the dog out, probably because he knew we needed to talk. At this moment, I was really hoping Dan and Sarah wouldn’t wake up too soon.

“Chris, I have an idea,” I said as he laid down on the sofa, putting his head on my lap for me to scratch. “How about we moved in together, but to a different house.”

He opened his eyes and looked up at me. “What house?”

I shrugged. “The one we would buy together."

He pulled himself up to sit. “You want to buy a new house with me, rather than just move in here?”

I nodded. “Don’t you think it would be nice if we both chose the place, decorated it, made our own?” I said, excited. Actually, imagining what it would be like to go house hunting with Chris seemed incredibly fun and I was willing to move out of NY just for this.

“What’s wrong with this one?” he asked, looking around like he would find a flaw on the walls.

I sighed, trying to find a way to give him my list in the kindest way possible. “Well, this is your house, in which you’ve lived for years, sometimes with other women and…”

“Ok, I’ll just agree now, so I don’t have to listen about my pre-Emily casanova lifestyle.”

It didn’t take us long to actually start looking for places. The next few weeks were a little bit busy as I was preparing for the Cinderella press tour and then travelling a bit. I also got nominated for an Oscar for the movie Chris and I had a row about, which was a huge deal, but I was focusing more on getting my private life together. By mid-February we were house hunting with a real estate agent. We did have a few bumps on the road, for example our completely different tastes. Chris wanted something classic, in a family, cosy way while I was more into modern architecture with light colours and simple textures. I also fancied those huge glass walls which give insane views, especially in houses on the hills. Chris, on the other hand, being his private self, thought that they’d give passers by a look into our life. In a gated community. With huge trees and bushes surrounding the building.

We both had lists of features we weren’t willing to give up and that was probably where we hit the dead end. The agent found two houses – one modern and one classic, which met all of our criteria. Both were situated in gated communities and a bit secluded from the neighbouring parcels. Both had bigger lawns than Chris’ current house and their fronts were hidden from the street view, so we wouldn’t have to worry about closing the curtains all the time. The room numbers were exactly the same – we could easily fit in both Chris and my family, if not in the bedrooms then on the multiple sofas. Honestly, the only thing we couldn’t agree on was the aesthetic part.

We ended up meeting the agent on our anniversary and visiting the houses once again. “Chris, can’t you see that this house looks like a home to a Republican Louisiana State Senator?” I whined, looking at the old fashioned ornaments on the kitchen furniture.

He turned around, with hands in his pockets and said, “I don’t think State Senators make that much money.”

I sighed, sinking into the overly plush sofa. “The one I want is cheaper.”

“But it has so many unnecessary things,” Chris started, touching the marble frame of the fireplace. “A home cinema? Really?”

“Christopher, this one has a professional gym with a massage table,” I fired back. “You barely work without your trainer by your side, while I watch a lot of movies, so…”

We walked around the house, I was pretending considering changing my mind, but it was just a show for Chris. Our agent knew, that I preferred the Brentwood house and I was not giving up.

We drove back to Brentwood and I literally got heart-eyed when I saw the house again. I loved the combination of grey and wooden walls on the outside. It paired perfectly with the nature around it. I pointed out to Chris, how long it took us to drive from the nearest neighbours house to ours (yes, that’s how confident I am), because his choice didn’t offer us the privacy he claimed he wanted. The agent stayed outside to answer a call, while we went upstairs to the master bedroom.

“Isn’t this view the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen?” I asked, looking out the window opposite a kind size bed.

“I can name at least one, but let’s not change the subject.” Chris smiled, giving me a great idea.

“No, no. Chris, just picture us here. You and me on this bed, after a good, last night’s fuck. In the bathroom, against the window, on the floor or maybe in the closet, if my lingerie doesn’t take up too much space,” I said all of it with my hands around his waist and looking up into his eyes. “Can you imagine?”

I thought it would be enough, but he still only said, “Let me think about it.”

By next week, I had already brought most of my clothes to Los Angeles, because I honestly didn’t think choosing a house would take us such a long time.

It was Oscars night and because of my nomination, we decided to go as a couple. We had never publicly talked about each other to the media or appeared together at events, except for last year’s Comic Con, so it was a big deal.

I was wearing a black, skin-tight Chanel dress with golden chains on my shoulders, ribs and hips. I loved the way it looked, especially with my hair down and shiny golden high heels. The make up artist decided to give me a strong look with dark eyes and a red lipstick. It all created a beautiful combination and even though my dress wasn’t very comfortable, I wished I never had to take it off.

My stylist and her make up artist had left and the only thing I still had to do was to put on jewellery. They had laid it out for me on the bed to choose from. There was also the bracelet Chris had given me for my birthday and that was the only piece I insisted in integrating into the outfit. I decided to wait for my boyfriend, so he could help me with these.

I heard him in the hallway, video chatting with his family back in Boston. Chris usually brings his mum or sisters to the Oscars, but he broke the tradition because of me. They didn’t mind, but I still felt a bit bad. “Chris, have you seen Emily’s dress? I want to see it!” I heard Carly’s voice. Chris walked in and paused in the doorway. He was wearing a classic black Gucci tux with a bow tie, which already was a bit messed up. Honestly, it was a sight worth drooling for.

We both just stood there, smiling at each other, both having insanely filthy thoughts about one another, until a voice interrupted. “Chris? I think you froze.” Carly said, which made us both laugh.

“Nah, I was just mesmerized by my beautiful girlfriend’s look,” he said, scanning me with his eyes from head to toe. “Lemme show you.” He pointed the camera at me.

“I loooove it, Em!” I heard Carly’s excited voice.

“Yes, you look amazing.” Lisa joined in.

Chris told them something about having to go and hung up. He walked up to me and said, “I don’t think I have ever wanted to rip something off you and fuck you against the wall more than I do right now.” His voice was quiet and low and I’m not gonna lie, I felt that sentence right in my lower stomach. At this point, I forgot about the Oscars madness. “In, like, a romantic way.”

“It’s not actually mine, baby…” I said, reaching out to his bow tie and straightening it. “You look insanely hot.”

Chris ran his hands along my sides as I put my arms around his neck. “Do you think we have enough time for a very quick quickie?” he asked, looking down at my cleavage and grabbing my ass and squeezing it firmly.

I tilted my head to the side and smiled lightly. “Even if we had, I have an enormous amount of make up on my face and I’m sure it wouldn’t survive,” I said. “Besides, our quickies aren’t really that quick… Not that I’m complaining.”

He rolled his eyes and sat back on the bed to check me out in full view. “What about the one before the Super Bowl?”

I turned around to face the mirror and put in my earrings. “That was just a blowjob, Chris.”

Chris shook his head and got his phone out of his pocket again. “That blowjob had me writing my vows, baby.”

I turned around, with my eyes wide open and started to laugh. “That was an incredible comment,” I said, walking up to him and sitting on his lap. “but if it was so to die for, then why did you also have to go to a Playboy party before the game, huh?”

Chris furrowed his eyebrows and reached out to get the bracelet he got me. “I thought you didn’t mind?” he said, taking my wrist and closing the piece around it.

Once the bracelet was on, I wrapped my arms around Chris’ neck, hugging him tightly, pressing his face into my cleavage. “I just thought I was the only bunny you wanted to see…” I whispered, trying to sound disappointed.

He chuckled, peppering kisses around my collarbone and above breasts. “I’m so sorry, bunny,” he murmured against my skin, giggling. “I know you’re just playing, but from now on I’m going to call you bunny, just to piss you off.”

Chris escaped the car before me, because he insisted on opening the door for me. As he did, he offered me his hand to help me get out. “My lady,” he whispered, as I straightened the dress on my thighs. “I told you we didn’t need to take those photos at home, they’ve already taken like a hundred decent photos of us.”

I walked across the red carpet, sometimes saying “hi” to someone, but mostly just waiting for our turn in front of the cameras. “I’m fucking nervous.” Chris mumbled.

“Why? I’m here with you.” I said, taking his hand into both of mine.

“Yeah, that’s the problem. It’s like a milestone for our relationship,” He said, releasing his hand from my grin and moving it around my waist to squeeze me against him. “First red carpet is like an engagement in Hollywood.”

I chuckled at his words, knowing what he meant. “Christopher, what’s up with vows and you today?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, it was probably our anniversary house hunting… and this dress today, God.”

I smiled. “Well, if that’s the case, then sign me up, sir.”

It was our call to stand in front of the cameras, so we stood in front of them, smiling bravely, stealing a few glances once in a while to give them something to write about. “I made up my mind and I think we can buy the house you want.” Chris said.

I sighed and turned my head so that my mouth was close enough his ear. “I hate you so much for making me wait so long.”


	7. Love you, Wifey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During the Civil War filming break, Emilia and Chris celebrate his birthday in the best way possible.

After 3 hours in the make-up chair, I was 100% positive my hair was going to fall out within the next week. Since I was blonde now, I had agreed to have it dyed to Wanda’s hair colour instead of using a wig. We were filming mostly in Atlanta and it’s May, so I just didn’t want another layer of silicone on me. Instead, I had to go through hair-dying two times, because they didn’t get to colour right the first time.

Dodger was sleeping on the couch in the corner of my trailer with a fan running directly on him, like a true diva. Chris has been shooting since early in the morning and he was already gone when I woke up, so the dog spent pretty much all the time with me.

I haven’t been feeling very well for the last few days. It was my first shooting day, but I came here with Chris a couple of days ago, because he started shooting earlier and I had some screen tests. I’ve been having some mild headaches during the day, which could turn into nearly unbearable ones in the evening. I’ve also been experiencing some sickness and was barely able to keep anything down, unless it was something very light.

They didn’t want to blow-dry my hair, because it makes it fuzzy, so I got to have a lunch break. Dodger followed me out and we went to Downey’s trailer. Robert had invited me for lunch earlier and I couldn’t say no, because he always has the nicest food on set and it doesn’t make me sick as much.

“Oh, hello, my brown-haired beauty!” he exclaimed when I was nearing his village. “I thought you’d never come.”

I approached him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I’m sorry, Rob. They messed up my hair and had to do it all over again.”

“It’s fine, nobody shows up on time anyway,” he said and laid out a water bowl for Dodger. Dodger is now the official set pet. “Help yourself, honey. We have everything you like.”

I grabbed a chicken salad and sat at the table with Robert. “Who’s coming today?” I asked, stuffing the delicious food into my mouth.

“Well, Mackie should be here soon, Evans and Scarlett when they finish their scenes, Emily, as in VanCamp,” he saw my face, when he mentioned the last person. “I know you don’t love her, but...”

“It’s not that I don’t love her, I just don’t like being around people who say that I stole their role, because I slept with someone.” I said and took a sip of my smoothie.

“You’ve gotten feistier since I last saw you.” Rob chucked. “Is everything alright?” 

I scratched Dodger’s head and sighed. “You’re not only our main feeder, but also a therapist,” I smiled. “Chris and I are having a bit of a rough time, I think. We, um, we bought that house together, then went on the Age of Ultron press tour together, now we’re filming this and we also agreed to do another movie together... It just started to seem like we are just trapped together. Well, he says that.”

“How is that a problem? Evans can’t stop talking about you when you’re not around and suddenly he feels like he’s in a trap?” Rob asked. “Honestly, I’ve known the guy for a few years now and you’re his longest relationship, so maybe it’s just his odd way of getting used to commitment or something.”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “I try not to think about it, to be honest. He was talking about engagement like 3 months ago, so I figured it’s not commitment he’s uncomfortable with. Anyway, he’s been taking care of me now that I’m sick.”

“Give him a break, love. He’s a Gemini.” Robert nodded and turned around to see Anthony walk in, still wearing his suit. 

“I hate this city, I hate this city,” he kept repeating under his breath. “Do ya’ll have any ice I can eat?” He sat back on a chair and sighed loudly.

“Have any one of you had any scenes today?” he asked. “Because it’s fucking hot out in the sun and I wouldn’t let my worst enemy work in that heat.”

While Mackie was complaining, Emily joined us and sat on the other side of the table. Our relations have been very, very tense, since I found out what he has been talking about me. She was stupid enough to spread those things amongst people who knew me.

So. I oncereceived a text from Aaron. “ _I didn’t know you were already dating Chris at that party at his place in February_ ”

It was just a casual text, he basically wanted to express his shock, when he found out we were appearently already a couple at that time.

“ _We weren’t. We met that night. Who told you that?_ ” I replied.

“ _Emily VanCamp is working on a movie with Sam and she told her, and I quote ‘ **I actually almost got to work on a movie with your husband too, but Emilia Dawson started to magically date Chris Evans right when the auditions started and suddenly I lost the job.**_ ’”

 _What a fucking bitch_ , I thought. To be honest, I had no idea she auditioned for my role. I got an invitation to audition, but the process was incredibly fast and I figured they considered me to be the only candidate.

“ _Looks like she’s just mad I got “her" role. I hope she hasn’t been spreading those rumours around too much._ ”

That’s why we are not on speaking terms, but that’s alright, because her contract expires after Civil War. I’ve never been mean to anyone on set and, to be honest, I’m not mean towards her either, I just don’t speak to her. Chris was trying to talk me into solving this issue with her, but that’s not my thing to do. She should’ve just shut her mouth and thought this through.

I felt my headache kick in again, so I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples. “I really hate this city.” I mumbled.

“Hey, maybe you want me to get you to an air-conditioned room?” Anthony asked. “I mean, the heat must be just making it much worse.”

“No, I’m fine. I just didn’t have to time to adjust here It’s probably just a late jet lag. I’ve never reacted well to heat.” I explained. “I already filmed one scene with Scarlett and I only have a few more takes to do today.”

Both Anthony and Robert sighed. “You’re just too stubborn.”

Because of the temperature, my hair dried out quickly, so the make-up team notified Joe and Anthony that I’m ready to work. They put me into a jacket and leather pants, which didn’t help my condition. I left Dodger with Robert, even though he didn’t really want to stay there without me. Probably because he was getting bad vibes from Emily.

Chris was waiting for me on the set. He had been doing some shots with Mackie, who was supposed to join us soon.

“Hi,” Chris wrapped his arm around me and kissed my head. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m alright,” I lied. “I’ll probably get used to the temperature in a few days and I’ll be completely fine.” I explained, pulling away from him.

“Em, you got up in the middle of the night to throw up and were covered in cold sweat when I woke up today,” he whispered. “I’m not saying it’s something serious, but you’re obviously not comfortable…”

I rolled my eyes at him and watched Joe walk up to us for instructions. We were supposed to do a few simple sequences of Wanda and Steve fighting together against Crossbones. I mainly had to do gestures with my hands and fingers, so it wasn’t very tiring. Sometimes I had to do some running and that was all. Chris kept checking on me, making sure I’m not about to faint. I wasn’t. We had a few retakes, but I was as fine as I could possibly be.

At some point, I had to wait for my turn to show up at the end of Steve and Crossbones’ fight. At first, I had to contain energy from a made up explosion with Chris and Frank in the shot. Then they left and I had a few single takes. I had been practicing my choreography a lot and my headache was helping a lot with showing actual struggle on my face.

“Okay, cut!” Anthony yelled and I felt my legs turn into jelly. I started to feel a little bit dizzy and weak. I fell down and that was the last thing I remembered.

I regained my consciousness feeling very cold air around my body. I still had a knot in my stomach and felt I could throw up any minute, but at least my head wasn’t exploding anymore. I was laying on a bed with something under my legs to keep them up.

I felt someone’s hand on my bare calf, one finger brushing over my skin. I opened my eyes slowly to see Chris sitting right next to me, doing something on his phone. There were I’ve bags around my head and stomach and I was only wearing my underwear.

“Chris?” I mumbled and he reacted instantly and came to my side along with a paramedic.

“Dawson, I’m going to kill you for ignoring your health later.” He said and I could hear concern in his voice and saw it on his face.

“Ms. Dawson, we figured it’s be better for you to rest in our medical area rather than transfer you to the hospital right away. We have some tests to run and we’ll probably hook you up to IV, but I do need to ask some questions.” The paramedic said, taking out a form.

I tried to lift myself up on my elbows, but they stopped me. “I wouldn’t do that, you’re still very weak, Miss.” She said, trying to hold me down on the bed.

She asked me a few questions about my allergies, medical history and symptoms. “How long have you been feeling unwell?”

“About 3 or 4 days probably.” I answered. “But I get a few days of headaches every year when it starts to get hot, it’s normal for me.”

“She also has been throwing up.” Chris interrupted. The woman glared at him, because he probably wasn’t supposed to get involved.

“Is that true, Ms. Dawson?” she asked me.

“Yes,” I nodded. “It happens during the night or in the morning.”

She raised her eyebrow and moved her gaze from me to Chris and to me again. “Are you on any kind of birth control?”

“Yes, I’m on pills.” I said, looking at Chris who seemed to be looking at the wall above me, because of the topic we were stepping into.

She reached to her bag and took out a pregnancy test. Why does she even have those? How often do actresses find out they’re pregnant on set?

“I need to be sure you’re not pregnant, if I’m going to put you on IV or other medication,” she explained. “Drink some water now, wait 30 minutes and then take the test.”

She left the room, leaving Chris and I silently staring at the box. He finally moved and brought me a glass of water. “It’s not possible, is it?” he asked quietly. I knew it wasn’t possible. I knew I wasn’t pregnant. I took my pills every day, 11 o’clock on the dot.

“I barely eat or drink during the day, so when I have a snack in the evening…”

“You what?” he raised his voice. “Emilia, I carried you here and I realised that you lost weight, but I didn’t know you haven’t been eating. I assumed it was because you couldn’t keep anything down.”

“Well, I couldn’t keep anything down, so I only are maybe one meal a day,” I explained. “And I know it sounds fucking stupid, but…”

“No buts!” Chris snapped “I know we haven’t been talking much lately, but I can’t believe you had to lose consciousness for almost an hour to realise that you might need a doctor. I thought that, if you never said anything maybe it wasn’t that bad.”

I sat up slowly and reached out for Chris’ hand. “I’m sorry,” I mumbled. “We’ve been busy here and I genuinely thought it was just heat and some bad food combined.”

He looked down at me and pulled me against him. “Don’t ever do that again, alright?” he whispered against my head. “Em, I was so scared when you collapsed. This last hour…”

“I’m better now.” I said. “I’ll take the test and she’ll give me some meds. Tomorrow we start filming indoors, so I’ll be ok.”

Chris’ eyes wandered off to look at the test. “About the test…”

“Chris, I’m not pregnant.” I stated quickly, making sure he doesn’t get his hopes up.

He chuckled. “I know, I’m not going to bring up kids until you say you’re ready.” He clarified. “I just meant to ask if it was even possible, because the morning sicknesses checked out.”

We waited a little bit more and I went to the bathroom to take the test. I set it on the sink and went back to Chris, who was texting again. “I called your mom, by the way.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I sighed. “I’m surprised she hasn’t called me yet.”

“Well, your phone’s not here, so I’ll just text her that everything’s alright and you’ll call her later.” Chris said. “By the way, I was supposed to yell at you for ignoring your health issues.”

“I get it, I’m stupid.” I snuggled into his side. “Why haven’t you been talking to me, Chris?”

Chris sighed and, even though I couldn’t see his face, I knew his mouth was slightly open and he was thinking of things to say. “You know how we signed up for over a year of working together, right?” he started and I nodded. “Well, I always thought that people in a relationship should, you know, have their own things and I thought that we would get tired of each other while living and working together.”

Looking at the fact, that not so long ago he was talking about engagement, I was really surprised by what he was worried about. “Chris, how far have you gone with your previous girlfriends? Because, if moving in together is overwhelming for you, then I can’t imagine what a wedding would feel like.”

Luckily for Chris, the paramedic came back with a doctor and he didn’t have to respond right now. They checked the test, and because it came out negative, they put me on IV for a while. It turned out that I was dehydrated (not surprising) and suffered from a light heat stroke and had a food poisoning.

I got some meds to help tone down my symptoms and then I was released. Chris and I drove back to our rented house. He then left to walk Dodger out and I sat on the sofa and phoned my Mum.

“Chris told me that you’ve been unwell for some time and did nothing about it, Emilia.” She complained. “He’s such a good guy.”

My mum talking about how she feels when she can’t be with me in moments like that and how dad reacted when she told him. I was mad about that, because I didn’t see it as such a huge thing.

Chris came back and my mum heard that, because she was on speaker. “Hello, Christopher! Thank you so much for letting me know! I would’ve have to find out from the press, if it wasn’t for you.”

I rolled my eyes at her words as Chris approached me and sat on the edge of the sofa where I was lying. “It’s alright, Mrs. Dawson. I just wish Em would take care of herself more.” He said, which made my jaw drop.

“Says the guy who smells like an ashtray.” I mumbled. “Anyway, Mum, did dad also start swooning at the mention of Chris when you told him how he took care of me today?” I asked sarcastically, pushing Chris away from me.

“No, I think he still remembers that thing he said on the late night show,” Mum said and I started to laugh so hard my stomach started to hurt again. “I mean, you guys do your own thing, but I don’t think you had to say it on television, Chris.”

I couldn’t contain my laughter, especially because he didn’t know what Mum was talking about. “I love fucking girls in the butt.” I choked out and Chris suddenly became very embarrassed.

“I didn’t know he watched my appearances on the TV,” Chris said. “Had I known, I wouldn’t have drank alcohol before the recording.”

At some point my mum had to go and we were left alone with our unfinished conversation. “So… do you want tea?”

I rolled my eyes again. “Someone’s having commitment issues…” I sang. He wrapped his arms around me and laid us down together on the sofa.

“Alright, girlfriend,” he murmured. “I have never in my life proposed to anyone, if that’s what you want to know. I’ve only once officialy bought a place with a girlfriend, the rest were just sleeping at mine from time to time.”

I raised my eyebrow and reached under his shirt to pull on his dog tag. “So I don’t get it. First you demand commitment and now you're like ‘let's spend as much time apart as we can'.”

“Well,” he sighed. “In fairness, you’re the more mentally mature one and you shouldn’t listen to the shit I say. I’ve only ever worked with one of my girlfriends and we broke up before the movie premiered. That was my only long term relationship, so thought it’s just something i shouldn't do.”

“Age of Ultron has been out for some time and doing fine, so...” I shrugged and snuggled into his chest. “I think we do have our own things anyway, so you shouldn’t be worried about that. You’re the reason I sold my flat in NY and we moved in together, so suck it up Mister. Anyway, you’re the one who’s doing only one movie after Civil War. I’m also filming a TV series in September and another movie in March, so we’ll get our dose of alone time.”

Chris chuckled and kissed my forehead. “Alright, let’s just not get on each other's nerves and we're golden.”

“Now go make me a sandwich, I’m getting hungry.” I mumbled into his chest.

“You mean a grinder?” he corrected me, pronouncing it more as ‘grindah’.

“Not this again.”

I started to take my meds regularly for a few days and I got much better. To make sure the situation doesn’t happen again, the Russos decided to film all of my indoors scenes first, so could get on with work, but also avoid a similar situation.

Chris had started to treat me more like a baby than usual. He was present while I was filming all of my scenes, also the ones he wasn’t involved with. I was very uncomfortable with giving Paul Bettany romantic looks when my boyfriend was right next to me. I mean, I didn’t insist on being there when he shoot that uncalled for kiss between Steve and Sharon.

Around mid-June we got a week off from filming, so Chris and flew back to LA. It was the first time we were staying at the new house, since the renovating team had finished it while we were gone.

Dodger had no problems getting used to his new home. Chris also seemed to love it, even though it wasn’t his first choice. And I was utterly in love with this house. Every day, when I woke up, I had a sunrise in front of me, sneaking through the windows. I looked at Chris, who’s still asleep peacefully and snuggled into him. Even in his sleep, he pulls me closer to him and kisses my shoulder. It’s heaven.

On Friday the 12th, Chris’ friends visited him from Boston to celebrate his birthday. They had an all-boys night with snooker, beers, whisky, American football and stakes, so I let them be and left to run some errands and for a meeting with Jeremy. I had agreed to do an independent movie next year and after reading the script, I thought that the other lead role would be perfect for Jeremy, so I asked him for a meeting.

I walked around a few shops, not really knowing what I wanted to buy, but ended up buying a cute set of pyjamas, jeans and a pair of high heeled shoes.

“Hi, Jer!” I greeted him as he stood up from the table. “How are you?”

“You saw me a few days ago, not much has changed,” he smiled and pulled out the chair for me. “Anyway, you got me interested in that movie.”

I handed him my script. Taylor had asked me not to make any copies, so Jeremy had to read at least a part of it here. We ordered our food and discussed some parts of the movie. “Have they told you where you’d film this?” he asked.

“They’re thinking of Utah in spring,” I answered. “It’s about 5 weeks of filming, but I looked up the locations and they’re incredible, Jer.”

Jeremy seemed very interested in doing the movie. “I’m just a bit worried, you know. I barely got joint custody for my daughter, because my ex tried to prove I don’t have enough time to properly raise a child, so I was actually thinking of having some time off.”

“I mean, I’m not trying to persuade you or anything,” I clarified. “Taylor only mentioned that they still need a male lead, so I asked him for characteristics and thought of you. I’m gonna give you Taylor’s number so you can discuss some matters with him, if you have any other questions.”

Jeremy nodded, putting the script aside. “Anyway, where’s Evans?

“His birthday is tomorrow and his mates from Boston are visiting, so I have house full of Bostonians,” I said. “They’re spending the night, too.”

“You’re in for a loud night,” he chuckled.

“Yeah, but I actually have an invitation to a club for a few of my friends, so I might just do that.” I shrugged. “Seems a bit odd to leave Chris the night before his birthday, but I wouldn’t want to crash their evening either.”

“Good call, guys get super mad when their buddies girlfriends join,” Jeremy said. “How are you two? I gotta be honest, I was pretty sceptical about your relationship at first. Not that I didn’t like you, Em, everyone fucking adores you, but on set relationships have ruined a lot of fun on set.”

I took a bite out of my chicken and said, “We have our ups and downs, but it’s great. So, unless we have a fight, we won’t be ruining the atmosphere.”

“Evans is a great guy, but he’s still lucky to have you,” He grinned. “Honestly, when I met him, I just couldn’t imagine him in an actual, serious relationship and now he responds to the snap of your fingers.”

I laughed out loud, knowing exactly that it’s not true. “Well, that’s a bit of an overstatement.”

We joked a bit more about Chris and talked the Wanda and Hawkeye relationship in the comics, which is sort of a father-daughter thing. It was really fun, especially when be realised that he could, in fact, be my father.

“I’m sorry, I can’t stay longer, but I left Ava with a sitter.”

“Yeah, of course,” I said. “Anyway, I really hope we get to work together again soon, not only for Marvel.”

“And I’m waiting for a housewarming party invitation.”

Jeremy walked me back to my car and we said our goodbyes. I had already noticed a photographer while we were inside, so I was positive that there would be a story about me cheating on my boyfriend with Jer.

It was still early and I knew that Chris hasn’t even started the proper party yet, so I decided to actually go to the club. I got invited by some friends I made on the set of  _Tudors_ , who have now also moved to LA.

I didn’t drink, since I had my car with me, but we mainly sat at out table and talked. It’s been too long since we had previously spoken, so it was nice to catch up. At some point we started to dance and I lost track of time.

It’s been too long since I went clubbing and it felt so good to just to close my eyes and not think about anything. I need to take Chris out to a club sometime soon. We’d have a lot of fun.

I think it was around 2 am when I decided it was about time to go back home. I could barely stand on my feet from all this dancing and had to take my shoes off to drive normally.

When I arrived home, the lights were still on. I was hoping to get inside quietly and go to the bedroom, but as soon as I walked in, Dodger started to bark. I bet he wasn’t a fan of the noise.

“Shhh, buddy. Come on, don’t be like that.” I scratched him behind the ear.

Chris came downstairs to greet me at the door and I saw that it took a lot for him not to fall down the stairs. “Hey, babe,” he blurted out. He wasn’t overly drunk, but I would say that he should've stopped drinking about 3 shots ago. “Where ‘ave you been?” His Boston accent was back from spending half the day with his childhood friends. I was kind of loving it.

“I met up with Jeremy and then went out with some friends,” I said and kissed him quickly. “Happy birthday.”

“Oh, God, don’t mention it,” He mumbled and connected out lips in a kiss again. He tasted like alcohol and cigars, which is exactly how I imagine their party would look like. “I hate gettin' old.”

“Old or not, I love you, Evans.” I whispered and made him grin.

“You’re an angel, you know that?” I could see how much he had to focus to say those things out loud properly. “Come on, let me show ya off to the guys a little.”

I rolled my eyes and climbed the stairs with his arm wrapped around me, probably for balance. “Fellas, this is my girl, Emilia,” he said, presenting me almost like Will Smith did with Jada in that one photo. “Some of you have met her, some haven’t been blessed yet.”

“Hey,” I waved at them almost awkwardly. “Don’t worry, I’ll just get something to drink and I’m running upstairs.”

“Why? You should stay with us.” Adam pointed at a spot next to him. “You’re all Chris talks about, anyway.”

“Yeah, I may have never met you, but literally know everything about you,” said the guy that introduced himself as Sam. “Ain’t your fault though, he’s obsessed.”

“I’m sorry, I have no idea what’s gotten into him.” I shrugged. “Anyway, I’m getting myself some wine and I’m gone. Chris, try to change the subject, alright?”

Chris pouted and let me go. I went to the kitchen and grabbed myself a glass of wine and a small bowl of strawberries. I rushed upstairs, taking Dodger with me, grabbed my laptop from the study and set it all on the bedside table. I took a quick shower and changed into my newly bought pyjamas, which I knew Chris will love once he sees it.

I buried myself under the sheets and played a random episode of _The Office_. Dodger laid down next to my legs, setting his head on my lap for him to scratch. This is the thing he’s takes after his owner. “You’re such an attention seeker, buddy.” He just sighed, signalling that he couldn’t care less, he just wants his petting time.”

I downed my glass very fast and didn’t get a refill, even though I wanted to. At some point I feel asleep with the show still on, Dodger laying down high enough to reach my shoulders and half the bowl of strawberries set on the keyboard.

I woke up to the sound Chris stumbling on the floor. He took the laptop and the bowl off the bed and tried to climb on to the bed without waking me up, but failed.

“You’re such a clumsy drunk, love,” I mumbled against my pillow. “What time is it?”

“It’s, uh, half past 4.” He said, taking off his trousers.

I shifted on my elbows to look at him struggle with the famous red belt which obviously was too complicated to figure out now. “Here, let me help you, old man.” I laughed and sat up on the bed to help him undress.

He gave up and laid back on the bed, before noticing my clothes. “Are these NASA PJs?” He asked.

I smiled and nodded. “You forbid me from buying you any presents so I decided to buy one for myself.”

Suddenly, he wasn’t so helpless anymore and wrestled me down to lay under him. “You’re sadly mistaken, if you think that it’s only a gift for you, fool.”

I turned on the bed to give him a good view of the booty shorts covered with NASA logos. Chris hissed and bent down to leave a few kisses on my thigh and butt. “Fucking amazing.” He whispered to himself, before biting down on my soft flesh.

“Chris!” I squealed, because he wasn’t gentle. Dodger woke up and barked at us.

He sat back and looked at me. “Honestly, I’m so drunk, full and tired that even the sight of this sweet ass isn’t keeping me alive.” He said in such a sad voice that I felt kind of bad for him.

Chris just sighed and threw himself on the bed next to me and brought me as close to him as possible. “Goodnight, Angel.” He whispered and kissed my ear.

“Goodnight, love.” I chuckled and feel asleep.

I woke up a little bit over 5 hours later, again because of Chris, who started to snore unbearably. He was sprawled out on the bed, barely leaving space for me. And that was impressive, because our bedroom bed was huge. Dodger spent the night in his bed on the floor, because once Chris came back, he didn’t leave much space for his rommies.

I got up and went to the bathroom. I brushed my teeth and rushed downstairs with Dodger, who demanded a breakfast right away. I gave him his food and found some leftover pasta for myself. I ate it, made myself some lemon and lime water to go and took Dodger on a walk. First, we went up the hill so he could run around and have some fun. I threw him some sticks and tried to teach him how to fetch, but he was being too playful. I wanted to jog a little bit, but it was too hot and I didn’t want to tire myself out again.

We walked back home, but I let Dodger in to the car and we drove to the shops. I wanted to buy some ingredients for the breakfast I was planning. Chris’ friends were leaving today, late in the afternoon, so we still had to find some entertainment until 7pm.

Having used up a lot of his energy, Dodger was politely walking around by me, not caring around other people or dogs. I bought everything I needed, including more water and Coke and drove back home.

As I suspected, it was almost 11am and none of them have woken up. I went up to the kitchen and placed everything in the fridge, before preparing crust for my breakfast pizza.

“You’re always hungry, aren’t you?” I grinned at Dodger who wouldn’t let me out of his sight, hoping to get some of the smoked chicken I was slicing, which he loves so much he tries to nick it off the counter. At some point he got tired of standing, so he laid down and kept checking on me once in a while.

I made 8 doughs, chopped some meat and vegetables and made a sauce, so everything was ready for me to pop into the oven.

“Am I in hell?” I heard Chris’ low, hoarse voice on the stairs. He was only wearing black jogging pants and no shirt. He had just taken a shower and, I hope, brushed his teeth. “Because it fucking feels like it.”

I giggled at him, but also felt bad for the state he was in. “Do you want some water? It’s ice cold.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He mumbled and sat on the stool at the kitchen counter. I brought him the glass and kissed him on the head. “God, you're too good to me.”

I walked around the kitchen island and put one pizza in the oven. It shouldn’t be long until it’s done. “Do you want some painkillers?” I asked.

“Do we have any?” he lifted his head rapidly, too rapidly apparently. He groaned in pain. “Fucking alcohol.”

I found the pills and refilled his glass. “My poor baby,” I stoked his wet hair, pulling him in for a hug. “At least you had fun.”

He nodded and set his head on my shoulder. “I’m dying...” He whispered and I barely could hold my laughter. “I regret the fun.”

“I mean, you’re 34 today, so...” I chuckled.

“Fuck you,” he muttered. “God, I wish I had the strength to actually fuck you.”

I tilted my head to the side, smiling sweetly at him. “Take the pills. You go upstairs and I’ll wait for the pizza to be done, then I’ll come to the bedroom, feed you and then fuck you.”

Chris groaned and stood up. “Love you, wifey,” I raised my eyebrow at the nickname. “Too much?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I like it, it’s alright.”

Even though he was still a wreck, Chris smiled at me and went up the stairs. “We’re so fucking cheesy.”

I waited a few more minutes for the pizza to be done, sliced it and went upstairs. At this point, I was really hoping Chris' friends wouldn't wake up for at least another hour.

Chris was laying on the bed, his eyes fixed on the ceiling. I shut the door and he turned his gaze to me. “I got way too drunk to be treated this good today.” He said.

I climbed on to the bed and handed my boyfriend a glass of Coke. „Drink this,” I said, rubbing his bare chest. He didn’t have a shirtless scene in Civil War, so they didn’t make him wax his chest, and as much as I never like hairy chests, he had the right amount of hair. The only scene that allowed him to show the incredible shape he got into, was the helicopter scene, which as I told him “ _could literally replace our foreplay_ ”.

“I really hope these will help, ‘cause I’m guessing you’re not into necrophilia.” He chuckled dryly, referring to the pills he took.

“I can’t believe it’s the first time I’m seeing you hangover.” I said.

“Well, I had to show you my better side, so you wouldn’t want to leave me in the beginning,” he answered. “What do you mean ‘you can’t believe it’s the first time’?”

“Brits and Bostonians have a lot in common,” I shrugged. “As in, both like to drink until we throw up. Did you throw up today?”

Chris looked at me and grinned. “None of your business,” He sat up on the bed, leaning on the headboard. “Now give me my food, woman.”

He ate his pizza while talking about what they did while I was away or asleep. I couldn’t understand how grown up men could entertain themselves in the exact same way I did with my friends 5 years ago, when I was first allowed to drink. “In all honesty, you’re all just a bunch of immature boys.”

“I know,” he shrugged, his mouth full. “Half of them uses Tinder for one-night stands and haven’t been in a serious relationship for a while.”

“Do they have a problem with that?”

“Not really, but they do have a weird look on serious relationships,” he answered, taking sip of Coke. “They thought that as soon as you come back, the party would be over.

I raised my eyebrow. “And as we can clearly see by the state of my boyfriend, the fun continued for a long time after I came back.”

Chris smiled sweetly and grabbed my hand. “Yeah, because your boyfriend’s more into long term relationships, I guess.”

“Oh, I know that, I’ve known that for a long time, “ I said. “That’s why it took me less than a month to know he was worthy of taking my virginity.”

Chris tilted his head to the side. “Less than a month? We did it after 5 weeks.”

“When I was already halfway through my first month of birth control,” I explained, moving my hand from his chest down to his abdomen. “Anyway, _Cap might not we worthy of wielding Thor’s hammer, but he’s definitely worthy of hammering into me anytime he wishes_.”

Chris choked on the food and started to laugh so loudly, I was sure he would take everyone up. “Holy, hell,” he choked out. “I want that on a shirt and I want you to wear it all the time.” That comment seemed to energize him a little bit, so I decided it was time. Also, I was super horny. I moved to sit on Chris’ thighs and removed my shirt to reveal a thin, white bra. “Oh, Cap’s gettin’ laid.”

I smirked and moved down to hover over his calves, so my head was right above his abdomen. “Let me suck you off, daddy.” I whispered, before lowering my lips to leave wet kisses on his lower stomach, my fingers toying with the strings at the waistband of his pants. It’s been a long time since I‘d gone down on Chris and I didn’t even have enough will power to make him wait. I pulled down his pants and boxers, revealing his half erect length. I looked deep into Chris’ eyes and felt my mouth start to water. I sat back for a second and tied my hair into a ponytail.

“Oh, it’s gonna be good.” Chris mumbled as he saw me do that. I smirked and sunk back down to attach my lips to the base of his cock and lick all the way up to the tip. I rested my hands on his hips and locked my lips around the tip, swirling my tongue around it, tasting his pre-cum. I released him and smiled at Chris who was watching me with his mouth open and eyes half-shut.

I wrapped my hand around him and sunk down to the base of his cock again, but this time moved lower to play with his balls. I’d suck on few spots and give it small licks, toying with his balls, as my hand was stroking up and down his shaft, tugging at it, its movements moisturized by the leaking pre-cum. I hear Chris’ light moans as my lips became more forceful in toying with his sensitive area. I moved away to take a breath and sank down to wrap my mouth around Chris’ throbbing cock. I hollowed my cheeks around him, reaching as far as I can go and covering the rest with my palm. Chris jerked his hips forward, making me take him even further. I moved my hands to fondle his balls, as my lips reached the base. I moaned as he hit the back of my throat and Chris immediately responded to the vibrations caused by it. “Fuck yes, babygirl,” He groaned and grabbed my ponytail and gently guided me to work my mouth up and down his shaft. “You’re so good to me.” he mumbled between heavy breaths.

I kept up the pace, feeling Chris’ dick twitch inside my mouth. My boyfriend was squirming a lot under me, as his orgasm approached. I sucked on the side of his shaft, moving up and down, along the visible veins. Seeing Chris throw his head back, I took his whole length into my mouth again, bobbing my head up and down and waiting for him to reach his orgasm. “Fuck, I’m going to come, baby,” he whined. “Stop, I don’t want to come yet.”

“I’ll get you hard again,” I breathed out, giving myself a very quick break to catch a breath. I sunk down again, trying to finish Chris off. He always lasts very long, but that’s really the opposite of a problem. As Chris groaned loudly, I felt him twitch inside my mouth as he released is load. I swallowed every last drop and licked his cock clean, looking him straight in his eyes.

Chris was panting heavily and shifted on his elbows. “Emily,” he sighed, barely able to say anything. “I could barely stop myself from proposing to you in the middle of a blowjob.”

He sat up leaning on the head board again. I smiled and straddled his thighs, gently tracing veins on his shaft, which was a bit softer now. “I know, I know,” I whispered. “I enjoyed that too.”

Chris moved his hands up and down my hips. He reached behind me to unhook my bra and pulled it off my chest. “Mm, yeah,” He placed his palms on my breasts and started to fondle them. “Come ‘ere.” he mumbled and pulled my chest against his face to attach his lips to my nipple. I gasped as he bit down lightly. I started to gently grind on his dick, rubbing my wet pussy against him. Without his mouth leaving my skin, he reached his hand to my butt and slapped it, before grabbing one cheek firmly. I put my hands on the back of his neck, supporting myself as I rubbed against his length, waiting for him to be hard again. “Babygirl, you’re so good to me.” He breathed on my wet nipple, giving me a tingly sensation. He grabbed both of my cheeks and started massaging them with the same pace I was rubbing against him.

I reached down with my hand and grabbed his semi-hard cock, guiding it against my entrance. I rubbed the tip against my folds, causing both of us to moan loudly. “We probably should be a little bit more quiet.” I breathed out.

“Fuck it, these losers should know you’re the best thing that even happened to me,” He mumbled as I sank down onto his cock. We kept the eye contact as I moved down until he was completely buried inside me. “We should stay like this all day.” Chris said quietly, taking a deep breath.

I started to move up and down, as he started thrusting up. I was already very turned on, after going down on Chris, so I was very close to my first orgasm. I was breathing heavily with my forehead against Chris’ and the know in my stomach tightened. “You feel so good inside me,.” I muttered. “Faster, daddy.”

I came for the first time, gripping Chris’ bicep tightly, trying not to wake up the whole house. It sped up my heart rate, I couldn’t stop letting out little moans, releasing tension from my body. Chris wrapped his arm around my waist to bring me closer to him and thrust faster into my pussy. His other hand was still roaming on my ass cheeks. I felt my walls tighten and a smirk appeared on Chris’ face. He was panting at the same rate as I was. “Since it’s my birthday,” he hummed against my lips. “can we try something new?”

A smile formed on my lips, because I knew what he was asking for. “I guess you weren’t joking about loving fucking girls in the butt.”

“I’m not gonna fuck you in the butt now,” He said, giving me a little, soft kiss on the lips. “I just wanna play a lil’.”

Chris brought his forefinger to my mouth. “Suck it, baby.” I wrapped my lips around his finger, twirling my tongue around it, using extra saliva. Chris slowed down the pace and I swayed my hips to the sides and around, trying to reach different spots. He moved his finger to my butthole, circling around it. I opened my mouth, experiencing something I never have. His finger started to enter my hole and it gave me a weird, but pleasurable sensation. He was very gentle and slow, trying not to cause me any pain.

“I’m so close,” I mumbled and connected our lips. I moved my tongue with his, twirling around it. I felt the knot again, everything in front of me became blurry and I couldn’t speak property. While Chris’ finger was fingering me, the other hand reached my clit to rub it and speed up my orgasm. I was barely able to control my muscles and not collapse onto Chris. I felt overstimulated and helpless.

“You like daddy fingering your tight little hole, huh?” Chris whispered. “Who’s doing that to you, huh?”

I wasn’t able to speak, because of the speed Chris was pounding into me at an incredibly fast speed. I came hard on his dick, as he removed his finger from my hole, stopped rubbing my clit and just brought my body tightly against his.

Chris came right after me, with a last, hard thrust, staying inside me and shooting his load into me. He turned us to lay on our sides, out bodies still intertwined. We were both panting heavily, unable to stabilize our breaths and heart rates. Chris took a few loose strands of hair from my wet forehead and tucked them behind my ear. He then kissed my nose.

“Let’s take a nap, princess,” he whispered. “You deserve it.”


	8. Emilia Alexandra Dawson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris drops a bomb-shell.

Chris walked up to me angrily, holding a cigarette and breathing loudly. “Are you happy with what just happened? Cause I’m not. You just cost us weeks of work, because of your inexperience and incompetence. Honestly, why would they sent us some incompetent rookie, I have no idea.” He brought the cigarette to his mouth. I looked over to the window and the shattered glass around it. 

“Fuck off, I did what had to be done and it’s not my fault the suspect got away. Maybe you should work on your surveillance techniques, Mr. I-know-it-all.” I snapped, grabbing a laptop of the desk and walking away.  

“Cut!” Sam shouted as I escaped the camera shot. “I loved that, guys. Let’s take 5 minutes off, alright?” 

I took off the high heels my character supposed to wear for the scene. I leaned on the wall and closed my eyes. It was around 10 pm and we have been filming since 6 am. I was barely able to stand on my feet properly. As I sat down on the nearest chair, Chris was talking to Sam about the next scene we were supposed to film, which was a kissing scene.  

We have been staying in London for a month now and we have nearly finished filming. We were actually staying at my family home, which seemed like a dream come true for Chris and my Mum, because it seemed like they had become the best friends in the world. Also, my Mum fell in love with Dodger, so even if we were home, we didn’t get to walk him much.  

Chris brought me a cup of tea and sat beside me. “I can’t believe we’re nearly finished,” he sighed, taking a sip of his coffee. “Our third movie together.” 

“Well, we still have the most fun scenes to do, though,” I said, referring to the kissing scenes and one sex scene we still had to do. "Why did the author had to add a romantic plot?” 

“Are you saying you don’t want to kiss me and pretend to have sex with me?” Chris asked, pretending to be hurt.  

I sighed, pretending I was making up my mind. “I meaaan,” I started. “I think, I’d prefer to actually have sex with you, without the audience.”  

He furrowed his brows. “Aren’t you the reason there were photos of us almost fucking in the club two weeks ago?” 

“Yeah, you looked so good in that shirt.” I remembered. “It’s actually your fault, if you really think about it.” 

 _Words couldn’t describe how much I’ve missed spending time with Amy, Mary and Sophie and now we were getting to see each other a few times a week. Tonight, we all went out to one of my favourite clubs, which doesn’t play techno music, but a mix of 90’s, 00’s and modern hits. I was so, so excited to finally be back for a longer period of time than just a few days._  

 _We went out as four couples. I was happy that Chris got along with the girls’ boyfriends. But I shouldn’t be surprised – he gets along with everyone who’s not an idiot._  

 _I went to the dancefloor with the girls, while the guys got us drinks and sat at the table talking. I wanted Chris to come dancing with me, but the other guys didn’t want to dance yet so he stayed to talk to them and said he’d join me later._  

 _I danced like a freak, singing along to every single fucking song, making sure my throat_ _wa_ _s sore tomorrow. We all went crazy, having not seen each other since April. At some point, Chris joined us, but he just wanted to say that we’ve been dancing for over an hour and our drinks have been at the table for some time._  

 _We moved and sat there. I sat on Chris’ lap, because the way he looked tonight was just incredible. I sipped my mojito, talking about everything that has happened. “You should visit us as soon as we go back to LA, we’re throwing a housewarming party.”_  

 _“Yeah, 6 months after buying it.” Chris laughed._  

 _“Shut up.” I said, covering his mouth. “We already had Chris’ friends from Boston over and the house needed a_ _professional_ _cleaning_ _team a_ _fter they left.”_  

 _“That’s because_ _seven_ _30-years old Bostonians is too much even for such a big house.” he explained. Chris seemed to feel very comfortable around the guys, because they weren’t that much younger than him._  

 _Chris and I went to the dancefloor. I grabbed his shirt and slipped my hands underneath it to rub his muscular stomach. “God, I_ _wanna_ _fuck so bad.” I whispered into his ear, before Chris spun me around._  

 _“You’re_ _gonna_ _have to_ _wait,” he grinned. “Because I_ _wanna_ _dance.”_  

 _He was so fucking lucky, because Earth, Wind & Fire came up and _ _we just went into a state of trance._ _I was thankful for a boyfriend who’s a very, very talented dancer_ _who actually likes to dance, so we can have fun together._ _There’s honestly nothing he does wrong._  

 _“I find romance_ _when I start to dance in...” he sang_ _into my ear._  

 _“Boogie_ _wonderlaaaand_ _!” I screamed into his face._  

 _Chris laughed loudly, leaning back. “Voice of an angel.”_  

 _I wrapped my arms around his neck and gave him a quick kiss. “Don’t be rude.”_  

 _The next song was I Want it That Way and it was all I could ask for._ _“You are my fire,” I sang. “the one desire.”_  

 _We moved to the song's rhythm, just looking into each other's eyes and smiling._ _It was my favourite song on the planet and I was dancing to it with my favourite person on earth._ _It was all I could as for._  

 _We came back to our table_ _and the others left. I kept looking at Chris and admiring how fine he was looking in his_ _outfit._ _I put my legs over his and let him rub my bare thighs._ _I leaned in to reach his neck and_ _attached my lips to his skin right below his beard._ _I sucked on the spot, surely to leave a mark._ _I creeped my fingers up and down his torso. Chris put his hand on my cheek and_ _turned his head to connect our lips._ _He_ _first bit my upper lip, running his tongue over it, then slipped it inside to_ _massage over mine. “Come ‘ere.”_ _He_ _mumble_ _d and pulled me up to sit on his lap. I felt his hands travel from_ _the small of my back to my butt._  

 _Even after_ _a few drinks there was this thought in the back of my head that someone might be watching, so I twisted my head in the way that my hair_ _covered up our faces._ _My hand reached down to_ _gently_ _rub my palm against his_ _crotch. “_ _Em_ _, you’re playing a very dangerous game._ _..” he mumbled against my lips_ _._  

“Babe, if I remember correctly, you were equally involved in that make out session,” I pointed out. “Let's bring the same spirit to the scene in a few minutes.” 

The scene was actually taking place in a car. Our characters are following a suspect in a case. We park the car near a building he enters and wait for his next move.  

My character is a newly recruited MI5 agent who’s working her first case, while Chris is a experienced FBI agent, who hates the fact that he got paired with a newbie. The characters are having a conversation in the cars as the suspect notices them. 

“He’s looking at us,” Chris said. “He noticed the car.”  

I closed the laptop and shoved it under my seat. “Do you think he can see the inside of the car?” 

“I can barely see the outside,” he mumbled and added after a moment. “He’s coming our way.”  

I acted like I was trying to come up with a solution and started undoing the few top buttons of my shirt. “What are you doing?” Chris asked, confused. 

“We're just a couple, snogging in the car.” I stated, moving my legs to rest on both sides of his thighs.  

“Ok, cut!” Sam yelled. “Are you guys ready to do the scene today? We could wrap this part today.” 

“Obviously,” I said. “No problem.” 

Chris nodded. “Yeah, yeah.” 

A part of the crew disappeared somewhere. Only a few people were allowed to be present during kissing and sex scenes, the essential crew members.  

Chris sucked in his breath as I placed my lips on his. I’ve done a few kiss scenes, but we always come up with ways to just make it look like a kiss. But now, we went crazy. We had been having fun on the set and kissing was the only thing even more exciting.  

We were supposed to start off like we were pretending to kiss and then really get into it. 

He pushed my body against his as I tangled my fingers into his hair. “Can you see him?” I asked, not opening my eyes. 

“Don’t care.” Chris breathed into my lips. 

Somebody knocked on the window and we pulled away.  

Sam interrupted and ordered to move the camera. We were supposed to talk to the actor playing the suspect, pretending we were just making out on the parking lot. And then, keep kissing after he leaves. 

After we wrapped for the day, Chris and I left the set. In a few days we had to finish the movie by filming some more indoor scenes. Including a sex scene. 

“Hey, how about we fly somewhere for the weekend?” Chris suggested, checking something on the phone, while I was driving. “I’ve never been to Scotland, that sounds nice.” 

“Oh, sure,” I agreed. “We could leave Dodger with my Mum, but only if we go hiking.” 

We pulled up in front of my mum’s home and noticed my dad’s car. “Oh, God. My dad’s here with his  side chick and their offspring.” 

“Harriet is my age.” Chris stated. 

I raised my eyebrow. “So young,” I looked up at him. “There’s people in this world who are over 100 years old and you think you’re old.” 

He took my hand and we went inside. All three of them were sitting in the living room with Leo on Harriet's lap. I really didn’t understand how they could get on so well, when the evidence of infidelity was sitting there with them. Harriet didn’t fancy my mum, but no one really cared. At least I didn’t. 

“Mum, we are going to Scotland for the weekend.” I said, picking up Leo. He was almost two years old and incredibly cute. He was constantly smiling sweetly, especially when he saw me.  

“Oh, that’s nice,” she said. “Chris, have you ever been?”  

“No, no, that’s why I suggested,” he smiled as I sat on his lap with Leo playing with my phone. “We’ve been stuck in London for some time now, so I thought we could take advantage of the weekend off we got.” 

My dad nodded. “That’s a very good choice.” They seemed to have had spoken more since we arrived here. I guess my dad just realized how cool Chris is.  

We took Leo for a walk to the park, bringing Dodger along with us. We put Leo into a swing for smaller children and Chris pushed him gently, making my little brother giggle. “I can't believe my father and I are dating people who are the same age.” 

“Stop thinking about it,” Chris sighed. “The only reason you can’t let this go, is because it’s your father we're talking about. I have younger half-siblings too and my dad has a new wife. It was hard in the beginning, but you get used to it.” 

I leaned on the post next to me and watched Chris play with Leo. “Why are you always right?” I asked.  

Chris laughed and lifted Leo up. “I'm not. I mostly talk bullshit.” 

I sat down on the ground next to Leo, who chose to play with one of his toys now. I scratched Dodger behind his ear as Chris played with my brother. “You look good with kids,” I stated. 

“We're on the same intellectual level.” He joked.  

I walked up to them and placed my hand on Chris’ head to run my fingers through his hair. “We should get going, it’s almost his bedtime.” 

Chris leaned his head against my legs, his hand creeping up my calf. “Could it also be bedtime for us? I got kind of excited during our car make out session.”  

“My parents and Harriet will still be downstairs, Evans,” I noted. “But sounds interesting, we'll see what I can do.” 

“Yess.” He cheered under his breath. 

I carried Leo home and Chris pushed his stroller and held Dodger’s leash. When we arrived, my dad and Harriet were about to call us. 

“We should go,” Harriet said, taking Leo from me. “He’s probably tired.”  

I helped my mum clean the room after our guests, while Chris booked our plane and hotel. Mum decided to go out with her friend, because she didn’t have to be early at work tomorrow. “I’ll give you guys some privacy.” 

“No, Mum, that’s fine,” I assured her. “We're leaving tomorrow, we can spend the night together.” 

“I need this, Emily,” she said. “I don’t like Harriet and I’m not as fine with all of this as I’m claiming I am.”  

“Oh, Mum... You should have told me.” I hugged her. “Go get drunk.”  

She smiled and soon went upstairs. I joined Chris on the sofa and sat next to him. He was closing up on the booking site. “So, where are we going?” I asked. 

“Inverness,” Chris read. “It looked cool in the photos. Also, it’s close to the Loch Ness lake which is exciting.” 

“Romantic.” I raised my eyebrow. “My mum will be leaving in a while, by the way.” 

Chris turned to look at me, rapidly. “You’re kidding,” he whispered. “You didn’t throw her out, did you?”  

I rolled my eyes at him. “What kind of a daughter do you think I am, Christopher? Keep it up and we'll actually go to bed with no sexy times.”  

“Oh, come on,” he nudged my shoulder. “I want you to sit on my face tonight.” He whispered, putting away the laptop. 

I opened my mouth, not knowing what to say. “You’ve been very vocal about the things you want to do with me lately,” I noted, setting my chin on his shoulder. “I can’t wait to see where this brings us.”  

“I hope it’s road head,” he said and I burst into laughter. 

“You're a reckless driver without your dick in my mouth, so I wouldn’t count on it.” 

“Oh, come on,” Chris whined. “I'm an excellent driver.” 

“You got 3 speeding tickets over the course of a year.” I told him, before placing the palm of my hand dangerously close to his crotch.  

Chris hissed in response, looking down at my hand. “You’re playing a dangerous game, princess. I can either eat you out and then fuck you or just fuck you against the wall as soon as your mom leaves.”  

I shrugged, placing my lips on his neck and gently sucking on a spot right below his beard. “Win-win.” I murmured and reached for the laptop to put back on his lap. “In case my mum comes downstairs.” Chris smirked as I opened his fly and pushed my hand inside. I knew we would be alone in a few moments, so I wanted him to be a bit worked up. I moved my hand up and down his clothed shaft. Chris’ mouth opened slightly as I slipped my hand into his boxers. “You like it?” I asked quietly 

“That’s a stupid question,” He murmured and reached to my chin to pull my head to face him. He captured my lips with his, biting on my upper lip. “I want you so bad.” 

As if she heard us (I hope not), I heard my mum approach the stairs, so we readjusted ourselves on the sofa and watched her put her coat on. “You kids have fun and don’t stay up too late.” she said, opening the door and leaving. 

“We'll leave the door open!” I shouted to her. 

Chris wasted no time waiting and stood up immediately, lifting me up bridal style and running upstairs and shutting the door to my bedroom behind us.  

Next day, we had just got to the hotel from the airport and we were driving from Iverness to Drumnadrochit, where it’s apparently the best view of the lake. Also, there’s a medieval castle. Chris was really excited, because he barely ever gets to do some sightseeing.  

We stepped out of the car on the parking lot. Chris seemed surprised that there were so many people there. “It's the most popular Scottish landmark, what did you expect?” I said, grabbing his hand and walking to the castle.  

“Well, I thought it would be less crowded since we're off season.” He shrugged, putting on his sunglasses.  

“It’s not crowded, Chris,” I looked around, noticing only a few groups of people. “The only empty places now are the stops we passed on the way.”  

“Yeah, we should've stopped there,” he muttered. 

I furrowed my brows, not understanding why would he want to be completely alone with me around the lake. “Do you want to dive into the lake and look for the monster or something?” I asked. He laughed and pulled me in the direction of the castle. Chris got really into the whole sightseeing thing and took a million photos, mostly of me (walking up the stairs in front of him) and some selfies in which I also was included. We asked one old German lady to take a picture of us with a view of the lake behind us. He then sent the photo to the OG6 group chat and captioned: “Found the Loch Ness monster.” I only found out about it, because my dear friend Robert saw it and texted me immediately, saying: “I’d dump him into the lake if I were you.”. 

“I’m not talking to you, Evans,” I said, after I closed the boot of our car and proceeded to walk on a marked path around the lake. Obviously, we weren’t going to circle around it, but I did want to find some nice spots for some photos.  

Chris knew I was joking, but still tried to make up for what he wrote. “But you’re my monster, you know.” He wrapped his arm around my waist. “I love my pretty monster.” 

I rolled my eyes at him and looked around the forest we had just entered. I knew Chris was already loving the country – he loved the woods, nature and the quietness it all provided, so I was glad he had suggested we come here. “You’re safe for now,” I murmured, looking up at him and giving him a wink. “But I’m gonna keep my eye on you, so watch yourself now mister, don’t try to surprise me.”  

He grinned at me. “Alright.”  

We were walking around, admiring the dense forest we couldn’t encounter in California or most of other US areas. Chris was wearing a plaid shirt under his jacket, so combined with his beard, he was an exact picture of a lumberjack and I loved it.  

“I want a photo of you here,” He pointed at the spot I was supposed to stand on. I didn’t say anything and did what he asked me to, because I saw how much fun he was having, just walking around and taking photos. 

He took a few nice shots of me in different locations, acting like a professional photographer and saying that it would be his new lock screen every time.  

We found a small beach with a bench. I walked up to the spot where water touched the rocks. “Do you think there really is something here?” I asked Chris, who was walking around behind me. 

“I have no idea,” he answered, his voice weirdly excited. “But if there is, I hope people never find it.” 

“True.” I agreed, looking at the hills on the other side of the lake. “All animals are better off without us. I mean, if you think about Dodger – you gave him a good home, but the people who had him before you...” 

“Em,” I heard Chris behind me, probably wanting another photo. 

“Chris, I’m talking...” I sighed at him. “Anyway, my point is animals don’t need expensive food or accessories, they just need to be left alone...” 

“Emilia.” He tried to get my attention again. 

“Chris, why can’t you...” I said and turned around to see him a few feet away from me. On his knee. Holding an open black velvet box with a ring inside. Oh my God. “You...” 

“Emilia Alexandra Dawson,” he started, trying to maintain a serious tone, but I could see he was struggling. “Words cannot describe how grateful I am to God, gods, fate or whatever brought us together, for bringing you into my life. You are the most important person in my life... You are smart, intelligent, like you really are so much smarter than me and I’d probably just get lost without you next to me. I can't believe that I got to be with someone as kind and generous as you.” He took a big breath. I kept looking into his eyes which were a bit glassy right now as were mine. “Emilia, I can’t promise that life with me will always be a fairy tale. After all, I’m a Gemini.” I smirked lightly. “But you know I’ll always respect you and love you. Last year, exactly last year, when we separated... My life fell apart and I never want to be away from you again.” he hesitated a bit and inhaled. “Which is why I’m asking you to be my wife. Will you do me this honour and spend the rest of your life with me? Will you marry me?” 

It took me no time to start nodding furiously fast. “Of course, yes,” Chris stood up and took my left hand and placed the ring on my ring finger. I didn’t even take a glance at it before jumping on Chris and wrapping myself around him. “I can’t believe it.” 

“Me neither,” He agreed, putting his head in the crook of my neck. “I’m so happy you said yes.” 

“What else were you expecting, you stupid dork?” I asked, pulling away so I could see him face. His eyes were a little bit teary and a big grin was spread across his face. “I love you, I can’t wait to marry you.” I stroked his cheek. “But you could have found a better time to propose.”  

Chris raised his eyebrow. “What? Why?” 

“My hands are dry and I haven’t done my manicure in months, so I can’t take a nice photo of the ring.” I said. 

Chris rolled his eyes at me and whined “Come on,” and then kissed me. It was a playful kiss, we both couldn’t stop smiling. It was the happiest moment of my life. Chris bit my lower lip and then pulled away. “Let’s let everyone know, alright?” 

I shook my head. “Let’s do this later, babe,” I asked. “I just wanna sit here and enjoy the moment.” 

We sat down on the ground. Chris was behind me, I was sitting between his legs, leaning on his chest. The view was incredible. There were some dark clouds on one side, but they looked magical in contrast with the blue sky on the other side. I watched the small waves on the water, caused by light wind. “I love this place,” I whispered. “It’s so much better than California or New York, or even London.”  

“Yeah, I’m glad we came here to do this.” Chris agreed and planted a short kiss on my temple. 

“We came to Scotland specifically so you could propose?” I leaned back to put my head on his shoulder and watch him answer. 

Chris sighed. “Well, I bought the ring like a week before we came to London, with the help of your friends,” he pulled out his phone and started to scroll through it. “When we came here, I was mad, because we couldn’t get enough time off to travel somewhere and I didn’t want to just take you out to a restaurant and then casually go back to your mom’s house.” He handed me his phone and showed a full group chat he had with Amy, Sophie and Mary. He would send them photos of the rings he was looking at and ask for their opinions.  

“That’s incredible,” I said, scrolling through the messages. “You gave this so much thought.” 

“Yeah, I mean... This is the most important day of my life now, until our wedding...” he sighed. “What do you want it to look like?” 

I tilted my head back and closed my eyes. “I’m thinking... Well, I’d love it to happen in our garden, but it just wouldn’t work, will it? I have a draft of our guest list in my mind already and it’s so many people... I’d just want it to be a secluded area, with trees and grass around it... I just want it to be quiet, as small as possible...” I whispered. “I’d marry you anywhere, to be honest.” 

Chris sighed and brought my left hand to his lips. “You’re making me cry,” he said planting a kiss on my hand. “Do you like the ring?” 

“Of course,” I looked down at the thin band made of yellow gold, lined with small diamonds and a bigger, oval one in the middle. “It's perfect, baby.” 

“Your friends said you’d prefer yellow gold, so I listened. I really should pay them back in a way, because I was hopeless without them.” He chuckled. “Anyway, how about September or October next year?” 

“Um, is it the best timing for an outdoor wedding? I mean, if you don’t want it outdoor then we can negotiate, but...”  

“Baby, I just want you to be happy. I know that getting married is more of a goal for me than for you and...” 

“Christopher,” I interrupted him. “Do you really think I only agreed to marry you because I know you want that? Babe, I want it. So bad. You have no idea how much I enjoy the idea of calling you my husband. This makes me want the interviewers to start asking about us more, so I can just say it out loud.” Chris chuckled. “You’re a bloody prince charming. I can’t wait for our wedding. I can’t wait to have that domestic bliss with you, you know?” 

“You are  such a sappy romantic, just as I am.” He wrapped his arms around my neck. “Let's find the nearest date we can, alright?” 

Chris took the phone from me. He switched the camera to portrait mode. We took a photo of us kissing, but with my left hand covering our connected lips and showing off the ring, which by the way, was quite heavy, and I was afraid to ask how much it cost him. “We can send this one to our friends,” He stated. “I’m so happy, I don’t think I’ll get over it soon.” He sent the photo to the chat with girls the OG6 one and to Mackie and Sebastian. We didn’t have to wait long for a response, but instead of getting a million texts, our phones blew up with calls. Scarlett called first, even though it was early in the morning in NY. 

“EMILY, IS THIS REAL?” she squealed into the phone. I put her on speaker, so Chris (who was on the phone with Hemsworth) could hear her. She was so excited for us, she already wanted us to set the date for the wedding.  

“Man, I know your brother will probably be your best man, but I’m giving the best man's speech anyway. Scott and I will coordinate, alright?” Mackie literally screamed. “Chris, Em, alright!?” 

“Of course, man!” Chris laughed. 

“Can't wait for the bachelor party!”  

I immediately shot Chris a glare and raised my eyebrow. “Yeah, we'll talk about it,” Chris smiled, looking at me and kissing the top of my nose. “No strippers, though.” 

When we finished talking to our friends and decided it was time to call our parents. We spent so much time talking about the engagement that we practically had half of our wedding planned.  

Chris dialled his mom’s number and put her on FaceTime. “Hi, Ma!” he waved as she picked up. 

“Oh, hi! Are you at the lake already? Have you seen the monster?” She asked. “Where’s Emily?”  

I moved to fit into the camera and said, “Hi, Lisa,” I smiled. “We have something to tell you.”  

Chris grabbed my hand and moved it closer to the camera, so Lisa could see the ring. “We’re engaged!” 

His mom was shocked, happy and excited. “Congratulations, guys! I’m so happy for you.” she cheered. “Have you told your siblings yet?”  

“No, we texted our friends and spent an hour on the phone with them,” Chris explained. “We didn’t think it would blow up like that.” 

“Well then, make sure you call Emily's parents and then the rest,” she said. “I’m so happy for you guys and can’t wait to see you!” 

We then called Chris’ dad and my parents. My mum was surprised and, as it turned out, Chris had asked my dad for his permission, so he knew about everything, apart from when exactly Chris was going to propose. My brother gave Chris their blessings and said that they were also looking forward to their speeches. We’re gonna have to hold a 24-hour reception to fit in all these speeches.  

“So, I guess we need to start planning a wedding.” Chris sighed. “That doesn’t sound as fun as just being your husband.” 

“My husband,” I repeated. “I like the sound of it. We really have to get married as soon as possible.”  

“They’d never forgive us if we eloped, right?” Chris smirked, stroking my hand. 

“Yeah, we’d be banned from all family occasions and parties.” 

“But also, if we have a big wedding, we can play our favourite music at the reception.”  

My face lit up. “Our first dance could be to  _I Want It That Way_!” I squealed. “Oh God, Chris! The possibilities..." 

We decided to head back to the car, walking hand in hand. We kept receiving congratulations from our friends and explaining how and when it happened. I couldn’t describe how happy I was to call Chris my fiancé. I was do happy he did it. It as the end of our commitment issues discussion, once and for all. “I hope you realise that I’m going into a full bridezilla mode starting today.” I informed Chris, as we entered the car.  

“I should hope so,” he answered. “I don’t want you to win the  _Longest_   _Engagement_  award a few years in a row.”  

My jaw dropped and I turned to him. “Was that a  _The_   _Office_  reference?” I asked. 

“Obviously.”  

“I love you so much, Evans.”  


	9. Nobu,

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris and Emilia are enjoying the engaged life and stressing over their upcoming wedding. (Sidenote: I changed the name of one of Chris' exes, because I made her into a much bigger bitch than I thought I would)

“You ready?” Chris asked, opening the car door. As always, he wanted to open mine to maintain his prince Charming reputation.

“Yeah, let’s let the world know.” I said as he left and walked around the car to let me out.

We had managed to keep out engagement quiet for months and decided to officially announce it during tonight’s Oscars. I had been nominated again and since we had decided to attend major events together, we thought it was a perfect occasion.

We were a month away from sending out invitations and we took the Oscars as an opportunity to go through our friends and colleagues again and decide who to invite. Although we did have a list and most of the invitations had already been filled out, be had some spare ones for people we might have forgotten about.

“I love this dress, by the way.” Chris said as he offered me his arm. “In a different way than last year, but still does things to me.”

I was wearing a strapless, golden Elie Saab dress with a long cut along my leg. Even though it was floor length, it wasn’t heavy at all. It had some golden pieces attached to it at the top through my waist to my thighs which disappeared around there to reveal a light pink tulle material which was semi-transparent.

“Wait till you see my wedding dress...” I gave him a wink. “I’ve finally chosen the cut.”

Chris smirked. “Don’t worry, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you in a wedding dress since last year.”

We walked up to our spot and Chris put his hand on the small of my back. I know he hated the cameras flashing in front of him and I loved him even more, because he only came here today to support me. I was trying to cut the photo call short, but they wouldn't let us. All I could do is serve them looks and glance at Chris sometimes. The word I would us to describe him was “gorgeous”. His beautifully styled hair and beard, which by the way, he doesn’t have to do anything to maintain... He looked back at me with his light blue eyes and smiled. And I smiled back. “Whatcha lookin’ at, doll?” he whispered.

“My fiancé.” I said, right before we were asked to move. We separated to do solo shots.

Be did actually cut those short, because we had arrived late, so the production team rushed us to move to the theatre. We sat in the front row. “Is this the right time to tell you that I’ve had a crush on Leonardo DiCaprio since I saw him in _Romeo and Juliet_?” I asked, after Leo came up to me to congratulate on the nomination. “And that he asked me out on numerous occasions?” We had met a few times during some occasions and he did hit on me hard, but the real Leo was a different person to the actor I fell in love with years ago. Also, I was nineteen when he first did and he's 16 years older. And he vapes.

“It’s the worst possible time and I hope he saw the huge diamond on your finger.” Chris mumbled and glared at Leo who sat down with his mom. “Because there aren’t many men I feel threatened by.”

“Is this why you got such a big one?” I raised my eyebrow, toying with the ring. “You jealous idiot.”

Chris smirked. “How dare you call your future husband an idiot?” he faked outrage.

I leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek. “I love my jealous idiot aka my future husband.”

The show soon started and we watched it in silence, making comments sometimes. Chris loved the musical format at the beginning, mainly because there was a short clip from The Avengers and he was included.

We kept making casual small talk, mostly on ideas for the wedding.

“Do you want to film it? Like, hire someone to do a video?” Chris asked when another break was coming to an end.

“Sure, but I want it to be someone who doesn’t normally do wedding videos. I want it to be more original.” I said, looking around the theatre. “I’m hungry. They had snacks last year. I want snacks.”

Chris reached into his pocket and pulled out on the these small Oreo packs. “Hannah mentioned that you might get snacky, so I came prepared.”

“Perfect human being.” I sighed, looking him in the eyes.

For the rest of the show, I was holding on to Chris' hand. My movie didn't win any awards, before my category came up. I was very displeased, because I was really sure of the “Original score” award. It was putting more pressure on me and I could feel it. I had to readjust myself in the seat a lot, because my back was tense.

Chris noticed me squirming in my seat and started to rub his thumb against my hand. “Calm down, baby,” he whispered as the presenters came out. “You’re going to win and you’re going to do great.”

“I’m not, Chris.”

“You are. And I’m right here, I’ll help you up the stairs if you need that. I’m here with you.”

I saw the footage from my movie, _Sweetest Heavens_ , appear on the screen and waited for the camera to focus on my face. I smiled and thanked God that my hand clutching Chris' was out of the shot.

“And the Oscar goes to...” Eddie Redmayne said as he opened the envelope and slid out the card. “... Emilia Dawson, _Sweetest_ _Heavens_.”

I went blank for a moment, but realised what had just happened when I saw Chris stand up and clap for me. I still couldn’t believe it was happening, but figured that he stood up for me, so it wasn’t only my imagination. I got off my seat and gave my fiancé a quick kiss on the cheek before heading up the stairs. “I knew it.” He whispered as I pulled back. I just grinned widely, mouthing “I love you" as I headed up the stairs.

“Congratulations,” Eddie said, handing me the surprisingly heavy award. “it is very well deserved, Emilia.”

“Thank you so much.” I had to hold back tears already.

I walked up to the microphone, clutching the statue firmly. People were still clapping (Chris was one of the few who were standing up, dork), so I was guessing that the route from my seat to the microphone took less than 10 minutes (but it felt like forever).

“This is surreal... First of all, I’d like to thank the Academy, because you make these,” I held up the Oscar for a second. “Uh, this will be the only rehearsed part of my speech, because the win was so unexpected. I’d like to thank everyone who was involved in the production of this beautiful movie, especially Taylor, Stuart, Marie, Alexa, Helen, Jerry, Steven, Elle, Lisa, Pilar, Sara, Hector and Michael. It was an incredible journey making this masterpiece with you and I hope we find a way to work together again soon.” I said, looking at the crew in the crowd. “Also, Hannah, my agent, who has been a third parent to me for the last few years and has never failed me. Now, I’d like to thank my real parents for supporting me even when they had all the rights to think that acting was “just a phase” for me, for giving me the benefit of the doubt when I moved out at a very young age and for still putting up with me and being the best parents a girl could have. Also, thank you for staying up so late in the UK to watch this, even though you have work tomorrow.” I waved at the camera, knowing they were watching. “And last but not least, I’d like to thank my fiancé... Chris, they won’t give me enough air time to fully express how grateful I am to have you in my life and to be a part of yours. Thank you for everything.” I said, looking down at him. We were both holding back tears. Chris bit his lip as he grinned at me, when I took my last look at him, before going backstage.

Someone from the production team said that they would keep the award for me until the end of the ceremony. I gave it to them and grabbed a tissue from a box on the table. I walked up to the make up lady and asked if she could check out my face and give me a little bit more powder, because I was all shiny already.

“Hi there.” I heard Chris behind me and I immediately shot out of the chair to wrap myself around him. “Congratulations, Dawson.” He mumbled into my shoulder.

“Chris, I can't believe it!” I almost shouted. “How the hell...”

“I fucking told you!” he cheered. “I’m so proud of you, baby.”

Someone told me to go to the press room for the break in order to give some interviews. Chris waited just a few feet away from me and watched me answer questions. I was still a bit overwhelmed, by this whole situation, but tried to keep a clear head.

After the ceremony, a few tabloids asked me for interviews and they were straight up asking about Chris, who was already waiting in the car for me, completely ignoring the fact that I had just won the most important award in this industry.

“So when did this happen?”

“A few months ago actually.” I answered, fiddling with the ring on my finger.

“Are there any plans for the wedding yet?”

“Oh, we don’t know yet,” I straight up lied. “We’re just enjoying the engaged life for now, we're both a bit too busy to plan a wedding right now.”

I was very proud of myself for lying about the wedding. I do know that paps tend to follow me more around my birthday or other important dates they can figure out, but I never thought they could just stalk me the moment my wedding appeared in the picture. Chris is a very private person, while I’m more casual about it, but neither of us want any leaks around a special day like that.

Chris escaped the car as he saw me walk towards him. He took off his jacket and, God, Chris in a white shirt and bowtie did things to me. He opened the door for me as I said. “If anyone asks about our wedding plans, tell them we don’t have any yet.”

“Sure, they don’t need to know.”

“And they'd be really surprised to know that we had already planned most of it.”

“That’s an overstatement.” He joked.

We arrived at the Vanity Fair After party just as I changed into my another outfit in the car. Chris had a vital role in the process, because my dress was very hard to take off. “I gotta be honest, I’d rather take that dress off you under different circumstances.”

I was now wearing a black jumpsuit with a lace top. It was much more comfortable than dancing in a dress. I left the dress in the car, which was supposed to go to the Elie Saab boutique now. “I didn't bring any other shoes,” I said as Chris took my hand. “I might require a foot rub later.”

“Anything for my winner.” He smiled.

We went through the photo call again, saying hi to a few people on the way. Chris clearly forgot that there’s also photographers behind us, because his hand kept creeping down my spine to grab my butt. I didn’t complain. We’ve been silent about each other for the last two years, so we might as well put on a show tonight.

Jeremy walked up to us and we talked a little bit about the movie we're starting in a few weeks.

“Are you going to bring Ava with you? I'm coming with Emily, I can be your babysitter.” Chris suggested.

“Evans, there’s no way I’m leaving my only child with you,” Renner laughed. “You’re the fun uncle who does the most dangerous stuff with the kids.”

“Oh, come on. Emily, back me up on this.” Chris turned to me.

I just shrugged. “You did hang you nephew from the tree by his leg.”

“He asked me to!”

Later this month Chris, Dodger and I moved to Utah to film _Wind River_. Dodger loved the constant presence of snow. He would dive in or lay on his back and just play and it was the cutest thing on this planet. We actually got him a few sweaters which made him look adorable and he became the star of my Instagram account.

I had to do some training for the movie, including gun training. Chris and I found a gym nearby and went there together to work out. I mostly did cardio, while he did heavy lifting. I was a bit curious why, since he didn't have a Marvel movie this year, but I never really asked. I watched him lift weights while I ran on the treadmill. God, that was some view. He was laying on the bench, his biceps bulging every time he lifted. Wait, why is my mouth watering?

I looked around the gym. It was pretty late and Utah, so it was empty. I switched off the treadmill and walked up to him, holding my towel against the back of my neck. “Chris, let’s go.” I ordered.

“But I’m not done.”

“Chris,” I winked at him. “Come on.”

He finally realised what I was talking about and stood up. We were really enjoying our lives after engagement.

We spent 6 weeks in Utah. Chris left for a few days to film a video game commercial. Apparently, Chinese companies are not only willing to pay Hollywood actors a lot of money for a 2 minute commercial, but they also move production to the US, so their star don’t have to go to China.

Two days after he left, he sent me a text saying:

_I have a photo for you, which I know you will love, but I kind of want to be there to see your reaction. What should I do?_

_What’s in that photo?_

_Me, in my clothes for the shoot. Actually, there’s a few photos._

_I feel like this is either going to be very hot or very weird. I’m guessing you’d like to be there if it’s hot and could get me bothered._

_So, do you want it?_

He sent me a few photos in a row, all of him wearing military gear and uniforms. I honestly could feel my blood boil after I looked through them. He was wearing the vests, boots and they put some dirt on his face, but also his hair was perfectly styled apart from that one loose strand on his forehead.

_How soon can you come back, my intended? And will they give you these clothes?_

During the Civil War press tour we actually got paired for a few interviews together. The studio never consulted this with us, probably hoping that us appearing together would give the movie more publicity (like it didn’t have enough of it already). One of the appearances was Graham Norton after the London premiere. The photos from the event were already out and I couldn’t stop laughing at Chris for looking at my cleavage like he was still breastfeeding.

“We haven’t had sex in like 2 days and you looked so good in that dress, please don’t blame me.” He whispered as we were in the car on our way to the BBC studios.

“There’s people who have sex once a month and you’re complain about a 2-day break, Chris.” I laughed.

“Yeah, but these other people aren’t engaged to you, so…”

“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Emilia Dawson,” Graham said as it was my cue to come out. I walked up to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. He then announced Jeremy and Chris. “So, Chris Evans, this is your first time on the show. How did this happen?”

“I have no idea, they never let me do the UK shows for some reason. I guess I’m just not the best ambassador for the US.” He shrugged.

“Well, that ship has sailed.” Jeremy joked.

“Jeremy has been here a few times, but Emilia has been here over 5 times now. The first time you came here was in 2010, when you were 18.” Graham said. “This is a photo from the first time you visited.” He showed a photo of me. It just screamed 2010. I was promoting one of the first American movies I did.

“Yeah, there it is. I think I still have that skirt.” I smiled, analysing the photo. “That was actually the first time my mum thought that I made it. Because I was invited to one of her favourite shows.”

“Well, your mum has a great taste.” Graham smiled sweetly. “Anyway, this is Chris’ fifth Marvel movie, Jeremy’s third and Emilia’s second, right?” We all nodded. “How does it feel to step off the Marvel set and move on to another, smaller movie?”

“Well, Emily and I have just finished a movie in Utah, which was then completely covered in snow, and I still don’t know if I prefer Atlanta in June or Utah in March.” Jeremy said. “But to be fair, those are the sets where you really feel your surroundings, you know what’s going on, that’s the beauty of indie films. With movies like Civil War, you often don’t know what’s going on around you, because we use a lot of CGI or it’s just a secret, so…”

“Jer, we’re here to PROMOTE Civil War.” I laughed, before he went too far with his rant.

“Oh, right,” he pretended to remember. “I mean, being on the set with these guys is really fun, we spend a few months together, thankfully everyone gets along, so it’s pure joy.”

“Clearly, some of you are closer than the others.” Graham whispered, covering his mouth with his card.

I rested my hand on Jeremy’s shoulder. “Yeah, Jerry and I are really close.” I said, knowing he meant me and Chris.

Chris cleared his throat. “I thought it was suspicious when you said you were just practising sex scenes with him.” Everyone started to laugh. I was really glad we could talk about us while not really focusing on our relationship that much.

“Emilia, I’m sorry he didn’t start with this, congratulations on the Oscar!” Graham cheered and was followed by the audience. “So how has life changed for you?”

“Umm, it hasn’t really... I actually moved for work soon after the Oscars and haven’t been home for the last two months, so I didn’t really get to enjoy it properly.” I explained.

“And where have you decided to keep it? Because Kate Winslet keeps hers in the bathroom, so is yours on display?”

“I haven’t seen it in quite a long time to be honest and I’m not even sure where it is...” I laughed nervously. “Do you think they can make a replica if you lose one?”

“I put it on the fireplace when we came back.” Chris said.

“Riiight, yes! Yeah, he’s right. It was there when I left.” I nodded.

“Oh, seems like we’re getting an inside look into the Devans household.” Graham joked, making both me and Chris narrow our brows at the ‘Devans’ thing. “In case any of you have been living in a cave for the last few months and don’t know that, Chris and Emilia are an engaged couple, congrats.” He turned to the audience who started to cheer for us.

“Devans? Really?” Jeremy questioned.

“Yeah, I’ve never heard it either.” I shrugged. “I don’t know if I like it.”

“It should just be ‘Dodger’s parents’ or ‘Dodger’s roommates’.” Chris said. “Devans sounds like a name some woman gave her child, because she felt Devon was too mainstream.”

I really enjoyed being on a talk show with Chris. After that conversation Graham didn't really mention our relationship. I think he had only done it earlier to use his opportunity as the first host to ever have us both on the show.

Right after the Civil War press tour ended, we came back to reality, which for us meant a lot of wedding planning. We really wanted just a ceremony for our families and friends. Turned out we had much more friends and family than we expected. The initial goal was nothing more than 30, but it was the number of family members we had to invite. In the end, we managed to close the list at 50.

Planning was a nightmare, especially until the end of May when we were both away and couldn’t get anything done. Up to a point, we were trying to organise everything by ourselves, but by January, we had hired a wedding planner. We just told her everything we were expecting and she would send us emails asking for confirmation. The moment we hired her, we decided to go in all the way and thought we could get married somewhere abroad. Chris wanted Italy, but I won with Norway, mainly because there were no free venues in Italy. But also, because I threatened Chris with a blowjob embargo, if we were to get married there.  

Because we were trying to keep the wedding under wraps, we tried not to be seen in some places, so we wouldn’t raise suspicions. The cake samples, for example, were brought to our house, along with flowers. Claire, the wedding planner, also brought our guest list and asked us to make a draft of the seating arrangements.

“I like this one,” I said, chewing on the white chocolate covered raspberry cake. “but I think it might be too sweet for some people.”

“I love it and we should take it.” Chris said. I glared at him, narrowing my eyebrows. “What? It’s our wedding! The cake should suit us, not anyone else.” He continued with a full mouth.

“Would it be possible to make it vegan?” I asked the baker. “I never asked, but I’m guessing that a lot of our guests are vegan. We definitely should have asked.”

“Oh, come on. We'll just put ’Might contain gluten’ signs everywhere.” He shrugged.

“It will taste differently, but I can make it vegan.” The baker said, writing something in his notebook. ‘I’ll try to have it done in about three days.”

“Ok, thank you,” I said. “Claire, can we have the catering company prepare vegan and vegetarian options?”

“Yes, I’ll call them right away.” she nodded and left the kitchen to make a call.

“Chris, not everyone is like you,” I raised my eyebrow. “Now everyone will switch back to eating meat, after being vegetarian for a while, because they feel like they’re turning green.”

“Oh, that was low.” He mumbled.

They all left soon, after making final decisions. We chose flowers and napkins for the tables. Chris said that the napkins looked dangerously similar and he didn’t see a difference in colour.

Since tomorrow was Chris' birthday, we had a dinner reservation at Nobu. Chris thought we were going alone, but I actually had invited some of our friends to join. Scott made the reservation, so they could come in earlier and be there when we arrive.

“I’m going to walk Dodger, but I’ll be back in like 30 minutes, so don’t shower without me, alright?” Chris winked, taking Dodger's lead and opening the door.

“30 minutes on the dot, because we don’t have much time.” I smiled and rushed upstairs to our bedroom. I already knew what I was going to wear. It was a tight, off-shoulder black dress that reached around the middle of my thighs. I’ve worn it a few times already and I knew Chris liked it. I paired it with nude suede high heels, which were also among Chris' favourites. I had a whole section of clothes Chris loved.

I undressed to my underwear and laid down on bed. Chris had only been gone about 5 minutes, so I opened Instagram and scrolled through the main page. I’ve had this urge to post something about our relationship for a while, but knowing that talking about us during the Oscars and the recent press tour was already pushing Chris’ buttons, I didn’t want to bring this up. I got rid of my private Instagram a while ago, when people found out about it and started sending new countless requests. I didn’t really feel the urge to share stuff with people all the time, but like everyone else, I wanted to share some moments with other people. Just once in a while.

Chris’ birthday was a perfect opportunity to do that. We'll see.

I checked the time and it was way past the 30 minutes I gave him. I went to the bathroom to wash off my make-up. Chris was still nowhere to be seen, so I went back to the bedroom and found my phone. I connected it with our home sound system and played _Beast of Burden_. I untied my hair and brushed it, before taking my underwear off and entering the shower cabin. I stood in the hot water, trying to wash off sweat off my body. It was unbearably hot today and I could only wish it gets cooler when we go out.

I poured some shampoo on my hand and wanted to wash my hair. “Lemme help you.” I heard Chris’ voice behind me. He was leaning on the door frame, watching me.

“I think I can handle washing myself, babe.” I teased, spreading shampoo on my top of my head, before I started rubbing it in. In no time I head Chris slide the glass door to the side and join me in the cabin.

“I insist,” he whispered into my ear, before wrapping his arms around my waist and kissing my shoulder. I smirked and tilted my head to the side in order to give him access. “That's more like it...”

I took a step back, pushing my butt into his crotch. Chris grunted as he looked down at his dick pressed against my ass. He leaned on the wall behind him and wrapped his arm around my waist to pull me down on to him. “I can’t believe my luck...” he whispered, palming my cheek and kissing and biting on my shoulder. “I’m marrying the most beautiful, the sexiest woman in the world.”

I turned around to look up at his face, wet hair and flushed skin from the hot water. I ran my fingers along his collarbone tattoo and placed my lips on it, while my hand travelled down to his abdomen. “How much time do we have?” I asked.

Chris smiled and lifted me up only to turn us around and push me against a wall. “Not enough.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him in for a kiss. We kissed playfully, biting on each other's lips and tongues, Chris moved his lips to my chin and then neck. His fingers let go of my thigh only to sneak up to my pussy and rub his thumb against my clit. “I wish we could just stay here.” he breathed out, his lips on mine.

“You always wish we could stay in, old man.” I ran my fingers through his wet hair.

Chris' two fingers slipped into me and I gasped, throwing my head back. “Mm, you are so ready for me, baby girl.” He whispered against the skin of my neck. I whined as he moved in and out, still rubbing his thumb against my clit. “Tell me what you want.”

I brought him closer to my body, slamming my lips against his. Chris pulled his fingers out of me and reached out to the handle and turned the water off. He opened the shower and carried me through the bathroom and our bedroom to the study. My pussy brushed against his shaft and it made me moan quietly every time. He laid me down on the cold glass desk and sat on the chair. I felt his lips on my thigh. “Chris, please, just fuck me,” I groaned as his beard brushed against my skin. “Please.”

“When have you become such a cock slut, huh?” Chris whispered and licked my clit quickly, making my hips shot up.

“Probably the first time you fucked me, daddy.” I moaned, putting my hands over my breasts and playing with my nipples. Chris saw what I was doing and bent down in front of my pussy again only to spit on it. He slammed two fingers back inside me and started to move them painfully slowly. He put his hand next to my hip and leaned on it, curling his fingers inside me to hit the right spot. “Please, do it faster, let me cum, I’m so close...” I squirmed under his touch.

“In a second, baby girl, just a second.” he whispered. His thumb hit my clit every time he buried his fingers inside me. At one point I couldn’t take it anymore. I felt the built-up tension release on to Chris’ fingers. “Mhm, yeah.”

He took his fingers out and licked my come off them. “You’re so sweet, baby girl,” he said, stroking his length. “I’m gonna give you what you want now.”

Chris grabbed my calves and placed them on his shoulders. I watched his eyebrows narrow as his tip brushed against my entrance. His chest was still covered in water drops and his hair was damp. A lose strand of hair was sticking to his forehead. He finally lined his cock against my pussy and grabbed a hold of my hips to keep me from falling off the slippery wet surface. He pushed into me, his lips slightly opening.

I felt him fill me up completely and gasped as he stretched me out. “Mmm,” I moaned when Chris started to move slowly inside me. I was still so wet from the orgasm he gave me and now Chris was picking up the pace. He closed his eyes and bit on his lip, completely lost in the pleasure. The way he looked was enough to send me over the edge and to add his cock moving inside me, hitting my g-spot... I came for the second time today, but Chris didn’t stop. He grabbed a hold of my both legs, took them off his shoulders and turned me to lay on my side. A lot of objects set on the desk fell off as he pushed me rapidly, but he then continued to pound into me while also rubbing my clit to make me come even faster.

I couldn’t bear the overstimulation. I shut my eyes as we both came. Chris let out a low grunt as he thrusted into me for the last time. We were both panting, not able to catch our breaths. Chris turned me to lay on my back again, without pulling out. He leaned down and gave me a passionate kiss as he lifted me off the desk. “We need another shower,” he whispered against my lips. His cock slipped out of me and it made both of us moan. He looked down at the mess we made around my abdomen. I giggled as he lifted me up and carried back to the bathroom. My whole body felt like it was made of jelly, I couldn’t move my legs and still wasn’t able to stabilize my breathing.

“If sex with you is so good at 35, then I can’t imagine what it was like to fuck you 10 years ago.” I breathed out.

We obviously didn’t make it to the restaurant on time, but we _only_ had a 20-minute delay. I was very surprised, when I noticed photographers as we arrived at the restaurant. Chris grabbed my hand as we escaped the car and smiled, “Do you think we still have our sex looks on?”

“I hope we do.” I said. Chris stepped in front of me to pave the way through the small crowd of paparazzi. I watched the back of his arms, the well-defined muscles that I gripped to keep myself close to him. Those two sizes too small Henleys he wears are really going to be the death of me.

We entered the restaurant and immediately went in the direction of our lounge. “Isn’t a lounge too big for the two of us?” Chris asked right before noticing people at our table. “Oooh, so that’s happening.”

“Yeah, we really would have stayed at home if I hadn’t made plans with them.”

Scott and his boyfriend, Adam and his girlfriend, Sebastian, Anthony with his wife and Chris Hemsworth were all sitting, waiting for us. I said hi to all of them, while they wished Chris a happy birthday. Scott walked up to me and we hugged, “Stella is here.” He whispered. I felt my muscles tense at the sound of her name.

“That explains the paparazzi,” I forced a smile as he let go of me and we sat next to each other. “Is she sitting at a table nearby?”

“I don’t know, I saw her at the bar and we just said hi to each other. We haven’t had any contact with her since last year, when Chris and her went out once.” Scott explained. I tried not to look around the restaurant. It was pointless anyway, the lounge was in a secluded area and you could barely see anything.

Chris and I agreed that I wouldn’t drink, so I could drive us back home tonight. By agreed, I mean Chris begged me, because he hates being driven around by strangers and he really wanted to drink tonight. Which is why everyone was getting shitfaced – apart from me.

My fiancé kept his hand on my thigh the while time we sat at the table. Because all of our companions have been invited to our wedding, it became the main topic of our conversation.

I actually spoke to Shaletta about getting married abroad. Unfortunately, she was on Chris’ side when it came to the location. Anthony and her got married in Dominican Republic, so she preferred Italy.

“I told you it’s a better idea. If you want to make our guests travel to Europe, at least make sure the conditions are bearable.” Chris shrugged and took a sip of his drink.

“Chris, do you think I want to get married on the North Pole?” I asked, “You clearly haven’t even gone though the places I’ve sent you, even though we have already booked the venue.” I snapped.

“So, why are you getting married there, if Chris doesn’t want it?” Seb asked.

“I’m a simple man, Seabass.” Chris shrugged. “My dear fiancée threatened me with a blowjob embargo, to put it in her exact words.”

Everyone laughed at his words, which made me a little bit mad, because I didn’t want it to look, like I was forcing him to do something. Chris noticed my lack of enthusiasm and rubbed his palm against my bare thigh. “No, but I gotta be honest, I would marry her anywhere. If it wasn’t for the fact that our families would murder us, we would’ve eloped a long time ago.”

“Yeah, Mom would be livid.” Scott agreed. “Lisa is a sweetheart, but she can kick ass when she has to.”

I tried to move the topic to something lightly less stressful and we ended up talking about the upcoming presidential election. Of course, Hemsworth and I were excluded from the conversation, but at least we didn’t have to worry about Donald Trump becoming president of our home countries.

“Em, have you thought about getting an American citizenship?” Adam asked.

I raised my eyebrow. “You’ve just finished talking about how a reality TV star has a real chance of getting elected as president, so here’s your answer.” I laughed. “No, to be honest, I haven’t given it any thought yet. The most important thing for me right now is to get married to this guy here and take at least a month off afterwards.”

Chris grinned and wrapped his arm around me. “True. Everything else is just supposed to provide fun for our guests.”

Thankfully, we didn’t have to leave our lounge to order new food and drinks, because at some point I saw Stella walk quite close to us. That was when Chris noticed her, because apparently, Scott only told me about her. Chris noticed that I got a bit uncomfortable and suggested we moved someplace else.

“She’s just your ex, love,” I smiled and put my hand on his cheek. “I’m fine.”

I actually got used to the fact that has dated a lot (at least for me) of women in the past and I’m bound to see or hear about them at some point, so I might as well just try to ignore it. I never considered myself to be a jealous person, but as it turns out, I just never met anyone I cared about enough to be jealous.

The Chrises, Adam and Sebastian went outside for a smoke, while the rest of us stayed behind. We were all leaving, but no one wanted to stand outside with the photographers, if it wasn’t necessary. I handed Chris his sunglasses, cigarettes and a lighter. When he asked me to keep them in my bag the only reason why I didn’t say no, was because we were celebrating his birthday.

After paying the bill for our table, the rest of us left. As I stepped out, I noticed Chris smoking a cigarette by my car. Without saying a word, he reached out his hand to me and placed it on the small of my back. “Thank you.” He whispered.

I wrapped my arms around his waist and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “What for?”

“Just generally,” he sighed, breathing out the smoke. “For putting up with a big, old, drunk meatball like me.”

I giggled and nuzzled my face into his neck. Despite the cigarette smoke, he still smelled incredible. “I love you, I don’t have a choice.” I whispered.

Chris chuckled and pulled away from me in order to walk back to a bin and throw away the cigarette. On the way back he put a gum in his mouth. Even though he had drank quite a lot, he didn’t look like it. “Can I kiss you now?” he asked as he approached me.

“I’ll make an exception, because it’s after midnight and your birthday.” I nodded lightly. It didn’t take long for him to come up to me and place his lips on mine. He tasted him alcohol, cigarettes and a little bit of mint. I got used to his smoking habit a long time ago, I just didn’t want his to know that, because it would not be a great motivation to stop smoking once and for all.

Chris placed his palms on my cheeks and deepened the kiss by sneaking his tongue into my mouth. I moaned quietly as our tongues touched and I felt a tingly sensation. His arm wrapped around my waist once again, pushing me against his body. I felt his arousal against my lower stomach and grinned at the fact that he was ready again, despite drinking quite a lot. Chris bit on my lip and then pulled away from me. “We should go, before we fuck against the car with photographers behind us.”

I narrowed my eyebrows. I actually forgot about them and realised that we had just served them with a full PDA session. “Yeah, yeah.” I nodded. Chris opened the driver’s door for me and then walked around the car to get in himself.

Chris sang the whole way back (it’s a thing he does when he’s drunk) and tried to hold my hand, but I wouldn’t let him, because I use a manual gearbox and have to keep my hand free all the time. “’m gonna buy you a car with automatic gear.” He mumbled with his eyes closed.

“I’m contractually obliged to drive this for the next two months, until they offer me another one.” I said.

“But you wouldn’t mind if we got a Tesla, right?” he asked. Chris knew that the only car that could make me switch from Jaguar, was Tesla, because I have a thing for electric cars and he know they only come with automatic gear.

“You’re willing to buy a new car, just so you could fool around with me while driving?” I laughed at him.

When we arrived at home, Chris was already asleep in the car and Dodger greeted us at the door, barking in excitement. He barely opened his eyes to walk back home. I told him I’d come in a few minutes, but had to walk Dodger out now. The dog got a bit excited to see us and I decided I should go out with him just in case.

When I came back, Chris was lying on the sofa in he living room downstairs. He always falls asleep there, because there’s a nice, cool breeze coming from the open terrace doors. He took off everything except for his boxers. “Baby, let’s go upstairs.” I said, sitting down next to him and gently nudging his bare chest with my finger.

He groaned and slightly opened one eye for a second before closing it again. “Let’s sleep here tonight,” He mumbled. “The air is amazing here, it should be our permanent bedroom.”

“Fine.” I sighed.

I went upstairs to change into the slip I wear at night and grabbed Chris’ pyjama bottoms and a blanket.

“Chris, wear these.” I said, handing him the pants. He looked up at me and groaned, but then took the clothing. While he was changing, I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and grabbed some water for my fiancé as he will definitely need some in the morning.

“Have I ever told you that you look mesmerising right before bed?” Chris asked as I squeezed myself into the space between him and the back of the sofa. He had some trouble pronouncing “mesmerising”.

“Possibly,” I smiled and placed my hands on his hair as he moved to snuggle his face into my neck and cleavage. “Go to sleep, handsome.”

I woke up around 10am, when Chris was still soundly asleep. He moved down and his head was now on the same height as my stomach, with his arm around my hips. He pulled my slip up, so his beard was scratching my skin. He groaned lightly as I scratched his head, before reaching out for my phone.

Hannah had sent me an email earlier in the morning. I checked it out and saw a few articles with similar titles from Daily Mail, People and TMZ.

“ _Exes Chris Evans and Stella Smith unintentionally reunited at Nobu last night, where Captain America celebrated his birthday with new fiancée and friends”_

“ _He cheated on me with Emilia Dawson, Stella Smith tells her friends_ ”

“ _Chris Evans, Emilia Dawson walk into a bar – what now?_ ”

I knew that if she sent me these articles, she thought I should read them, so I took a deep breath and opened the first one.

_“... Smith arrived first, accompanied by a bunch of photographers, who were then surprised to see Evans and Dawson arrive about 30 minutes later. It is said that the engaged couple did not interact with Evans' ex, apart from a quick nod between Chris and Stella, when he was out for a smoke and she was leaving. It was visible that Emilia was quite uncomfortable knowing she’s somewhere there, but who wouldn’t be?”_

_“People from Stella's close surroundings have confirmed, that she’s been claiming Chris cheated on her with Emilia and they were still together when the Captain America actor and Dawson started dating.”_

_“... with Smith's new claims in the picture, we now look at the whole case in a different way. The cheating part would explain the tension between the exes during yesterday's outing. Apparently, the exes were even living together when the affair started.”_

Great. Now I’m a homewrecker.

I came back to the email and checked what Hannah has written:

_“Normally, I wouldn’t recommend that, but Chris’ and your movie comes out later this year and we don’t want another Angelina, Brad and Jennifer thing. I would suggest publishing a statement denying these allegations, containing some details, because if she’s actually been saying that, then we might be facing a bigger problem.”_

Chris shifted and took a big breath through his nose. He stretched out his arms and looked up at me, with his sleepy, half-closed eyes. “Hi, sexy.” He murmured, before pulling my body close to his and scratching his beard against the soft skin on my stomach.

I smiled at him and found Hannah’s number, then simply texted her: “ **Do your worst**.”


	10. Half of McDonald's menu,

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The big day approaches.

„What if it hurts?” I whispered, staring blankly into the wall. “I mean, I’m putting some stick up my uterus.” 

Chris squeezed my hand and wrapped the other around me. “It’s about an inch long, very thin and much more comfortable than taking a pill every day. Also, you took a lot of painkillers and they’ll give you numbing meds, alright?”  

I decided to get an IUD as a new method of birth control, because lately I have been forgetting to take my pills with me and didn’t want an accident to happen. We had once spend almost two weeks in London and because I didn’t have my pills with me, Chris actually had to run to get a condom a few times, then eventually got a small box of them and that was when we noticed how much sex we are having.  

“Can we go to McDonald’s afterwards?” I asked, nuzzling my face against his bicep. “I shouldn’t eat junk food, I don’t want a break out on my face before the wedding…”  

“We’ll get the food and then I’ll make you drink enough water to get it out of your system.” He promised. “But we also have to pick up the rings.” 

“Mhm,” I mumbled as I closed my eyes and leaned my head on his shoulder. “Are you sure you’re okay with this?” 

“With the wedding rings?” 

“IUD is much more permanent than pills, I haven’t thought about when I’d want to take it out and, uh, try…” I explained.  

“Put it in and don’t think about kids right now, ok? I’m fine and I’m going to wait for you to be ready and be as comfortable as possible until then. But please don't make wait until I’m 50.” 

I sighed and smiled at him. “How are you so perfect, you sick fuck?”  

The doctor came out of her office and invited me in. “I know it sounds weird, but there’s really nothing to worry about. After it’s been put in, you might feel period like cramps for a few hours and it’s done.” 

She put on her gloved and shoved me the object. “I know that ‘opening the cervix’ sounds horrible, but it’s not a baby, IUD is very thin and after I give you numbing meds, you won’t even feel it.” 

I nodded lightly and sat on the hair. I wore a skirt and Chris' sweater, so it would be comfortable for her to access and so I could smell Chris' scent, which is soothing for me. 

She put a cold gel around the area and waited some time before getting to work. “So, is it actually easier to get pregnant after taking out a IUD rather than after pills?” I asked. 

“Definitely. Even with hormonal IUDs, they aren’t as invasive as pills. I’ve had patients who got pregnant during their first cycle after IUD.” She answered, already starting to do something around my crotch, but I figured she was just preparing me. 

“Oh, okay. So, if I wanted to keep it for like a year and then take out, then even the hormones shouldn’t affect my ability to get pregnant?” 

“Not at all, it doesn’t work the same way pills do. Technically, you could get pregnant right after taking it out. With pills, even if you forget one, it shouldn’t be a problem. You provide your body with such a big dose of hormones that it takes time for it to wear off completely,” she explained. “You might feel a little uncomfortable right now. 

I felt something, like a pulling sensation, which I couldn’t really describe. I figured she was preparing me for the procedure. “Aaaand... it’s done.” 

I opened my eyes and saw that she was actually taking her gloves off. “Is it, really?”  

She smiled and nodded. “Stay like this for a few moments. The numbing meds I’ve given you might make it a bit hard for you to walk now, so I’d suggest you wait a few more minutes. Also, it would be great if your partner could help you walk.” 

“Oh, he wouldn’t leave my side anyway, so that won’t be a problem.”  

Soon she told me I was ok to go and let Chris in. He looked at me with a concerned face. Even though he kept calming me down earlier, he was probably more nervous than I was. “Are you ok?” 

“Yeah, I didn’t even know it was happening, I’m alright.” I smiled and sat up on the chair in order to get up. Chris wrapped his arm tightly around my waist and tried to put all of my weight on him, but it felt like I was able to walk normally, so I wouldn’t let him.  

We walked slowly to our car and Chris opened the door for me. “I should’ve got a ‘brave patient’ badge’.” I said as Chris started the car.  

“I’ll buy you half of the McDonald’s menu for being a brave patient.” Chris smiled. 

“Only a half of it?” 

“I would buy you the whole restaurant, but I’m a hundred percent sure that in a month you would complain about not fitting into your wedding dress and blame it on me.” He laughed. 

When we arrived at the jeweller’s, Chris hopped out of the car and went there to get our wedding bands. They had already been altered, so I didn’t have to go with him. I scrolled through the songs on my phone and played something. When I put my phone back, I looked ahead through the windscreen and saw a photographer taking photos in the distance. I sighed, putting my sunglasses on. The last time we were caught by photographers was the night before Chris’ birthday and that started a shit storm of people against both me and Stella. People were doing everything to find out if there’s any evidence of Chris cheating on her with me. It became so awful, that Chris had to stop having his daily checks of Twitter, because stuff about us was all over it. I actually asked Hannah to release a statement a few days after it all blew up, because I was so sick of the messages and e-mails. 

“ _I have been asked by my client, Emilia Dawson, to release the following statement:_  

 _I have never been overly_ _concerned about details of my private life coming out, because I_ _do like to share some of it with my fans and followers._ _Unfortunately, now I_ _am forced to_ _share some of the details_ _as for the last few days I have been_ _one of the main topics of conversation on social media platforms and_ _media outlets_ _and both my loved ones and I are tired of it._  

 _I met my partner_ _in February 2014 at a party thrown by him for some of our fellow Marvel_ _actors. I had only been a part of_ _that cast for a few months and only knew a couple of fellow Brits_ _there._ _We spent the majority of the next day together as well as_ _the next few weeks, when we were able to take some time off from our commitments._  

 _I am releasing this statement to_ _deny some of the accusations that have_ _apparently been made against me_ _and spread by the media, without being fact checked._  

 _Shortly after meeting my partner_ _, I have been made aware of a break up he went through two months prior to our first meeting_ _, which directly meant that he was a single man_ _._ _There was also no way_ _anyone had been living in my partner's house in February 2014._  

 _If the rumours that are being spread have a_ _an actual source, other than a very_ _creative mind of a gossip site ‘journalist', I would like it to also release a statement_ _citing reasons for why they would come up with lies like that_ _and spread them._  

 _As I am one hundred percent sure that all of this information is completely false, I_ _would like to say that from this day onwards, every_ _news outlet that shares any of this nonsense, will be sued_ _. If (or when) I win the case,_ _the money will be divided between animal_ _shelters._ ” 

Chris didn’t like the statement or me getting involved in this case at all. But to be honest, he didn’t have much to say – all of the articles portrayed me as a homewrecker and skipped over the fact that it takes two people to have an alleged affair. Although there were some people who wanted to ‘cancel’ him because of this, the majority only looked at my supposed behaviour and called me various names because of it.  

The statement and ‘suit threat’ worked – gossip sites stopped the articles and the only people that couldn’t let this go were some of Twitter users who seemed to just love drama. Chris had messaged Stella, asking to get involved and at least deny the cheating rumours, as ‘we all knew this isn’t true’, but she wouldn’t do that. He said that she was probably just petty, because he didn’t propose to her in the 5 years they dated on and off. More so, he never even suggested they move in together. And it only took him less than two years to propose to me. He always said that it was because it felt like Stella was a bit distant and she wasn’t treating their relationship seriously, so they were both wasting their time until a one day came and he decided that he’s had enough. In my opinion, she was just trying to play hard to get and it went a bit too far. 

“I called you,” I heard Chris say as he entered the car. “Don’t tell me you were thinking about that thing again.” 

“Maybe,” I murmured, looking down at my phone to discover 3 missed phone calls from Chris. “What did you want?” 

“They had a few boxes to choose from and I didn’t know which one you’d like.” He explained showing me the dark green one he picked. “I thought this one would match our theme the most.” 

I raised my eyebrow. “We have a theme?” 

“We’re getting married in Norway, of course we have a theme.” He laughed. “So, is this one alright?” 

“Perfect,” I smiled. “I think our relationship is having a great impact on your taste.” 

Chris grinned and started the car. “I know it for sure.” He leaned in to kiss me. His lips captured my lower lip and I moaned lightly as his teeth bit on it lightly.  

“Don’t do that,” I whined. “ We’re supposed to last 4 more weeks without sex.” Chris ignored me and deepened the kiss, his hand travelling to my face to hold me closer.  

“That was your stupid idea,” He murmured against my lips. “The only reason I agreed to this is because you made it into a bet and I’m always willing to participate in a bet I’m sure I’m going to win.” 

“We’ve been through one week of sex embargo, we can do 4 more.” I said, placing my hand on his chest and pushing him away gently.  

Chris leaned back on the driver’s seat and sighed. “We’re not even married yet and you’re denying the love of your life sex already.” He said jokingly. I knew he was kidding, because he was as eager to see the outcome of this bet as I was.  

I came up with this when one time were hanging out with our friends in our garden and Scott said that in the nearly two and a half years of our relationship  we’ve had as much sex as a regular couple would have during a lifetime. Somehow that has led to us coming up with the idea of not having sex for 5 weeks before the wedding, which is also the same time we waited until our first time.  

It went on and on for some time, until we arrived at the drive though at McDonald’s and I got busy reading the menu. “Baby, give me a maximum amount of items I can get or I’ll go crazy.” 

“Ok, you can get 4 things and that’s including a drink and something sweet,” he said. 

I sighed and chose chips, some double burger (because he didn’t specify the size) a cookie and a Coke. Chris quickly drove back home, so I could eat my junk there. Dodger greeted us happily and jumped around us, asking for some loving.  

We all laid down on the couch, in front of the TV. I had my comfort food on my lap and placed my feet on Chris'.  

“So have you decided on our honeymoon destinations?” I asked after stuffing my mouth with chips. “I know mine.” We decided to have a 4-week honeymoon and go to four places and spend a week in each one. Both of us were supposed to choose two places. “I bet it’s someplace cold.” 

“Keep up the attitude and it will get colder.” I snapped. “We're going to Iceland and New Zealand.” 

“Oh, that’s a jetlag nightmare,” Chris sighed. “I chose Italy and France.” 

“That’s so cliché, hubby.” 

For the next two weeks we were so busy with wedding preparations that we didn’t even have time for sex, so the bet turned out to be useless. Chris spent one week away in Atlanta, doing additional shoots for Gifted, while Claire and I took care of the finishing touches to the ceremony. We were supposed to fly in 2 days before, to see the preparations and have our bachelorette and bachelor's parties there. Although we invited around 50 people, not all of them were able to attend and the final number was about 40 guests. We rented a few cabins for them in a resort near the spot we were getting married in. Ours was a bit sedated just to make sure we had a bit of privacy for our wedding night.  

I have to say, I was starting to get a little bit nervous and everyone said it was because I haven’t seen the venue or anything, but that wasn’t it. I was nervous because I was getting married to the most eligible bachelor in Hollywood. The purest man of them all. The man who files in early for me, because he knows I’m not feeling well. The man who decides he’ll wait for me to be ready for children, even though he has already waited a long time. He’s changed so much for me and I wanted to repay him. 

I knew he wouldn’t even dare to mention it, but I decided to change my name to Emily Evans. I was torn between this and Emily Dawson-Evans, but I figured that if we’re already causing such a stir in the media, we might as well start the Evans clan. 

Chris joined me at the airport for our trip to Bergen. He was a little bit tanned from filming, with a new haircut and a groomed beard (although it doesn’t require much grooming). The producers were very lucky that it was a look he wanted to go with for the wedding.  

“Hello, my intended,” He grinned as his arms slipped around my waist to give me a welcome kiss. “How have you been doing this past week?” 

He gave me a loving kiss on the lips and then pressed his lips against my forehead. “We’re one plane trip away from being married.” 

“It’s a bloody long trip though,” I chuckled. “We’re leaving LA at 1PM and will be in Paris at 9AM European time, then 5 hours at the airport and another 2 hour flight. We’re gonna need to nap a lot.” 

“Napping is my second favourite thing to do with you.” He joked.  

Even though we were never fans of this solution, we decided to rent a private jet in order to make the trip as comfortable for Dodger, as we could. We realised that we were spending so much money on the wedding then we might as well treat ourselves and have a nice flight alone to Norway.  

Although Dodger was quite used to travelling by now, he still required some attention during the take off, but was fine once we were allowed to unfasten our seatbelts. As soon as we could, we went to the bed. Dodger laid down next to me, while Chris was behind me squeezing me into his body. He pressed his face into my neck, inhaling my scent. “I can’t believe they’re going to take you away from me right before the wedding.” 

“It’s so you can get shitfaced and run away while you still can.” I joked. “And so the girls can ask me about our sex life.” 

“Which has been non-existent for the past month?” Chris inquired. “Just tell them that you can never walk normally after we have sex.” 

“Why would I lie?” I laughed and my fiancé responded by biting me on the shoulder. “Let's sleep while we can.” 

The noise of the engines actually helped us fall asleep, which meant we would avoid a massive jetlag in Europe. The stewardess woke us up before the landing, so we could fasten our seatbelts again. “Have I told you that I might be taking on a new movie and they’re asking me to grow out my hair and a real beard?”  

“You have a real beard already,” I said, imagining him with longer hair and instantly getting excited. “And I love that idea, you should say yes.”  

“Oh, that’s just a stubble.” He mumbled, scratching his hand against his facial hair. “I’m surprised you let me have a beard for the wedding.” 

I turned from the window to frown at him. “The only thing I’m ever going to forbid is that stupid idea you had for a white suit for the wedding, honestly. I thought Lisa raised you better.”  

We arrived at the village and were guided to our cabin. All of them were wooden and so simple yet unique. I knew Chris loved them too and was excited about the idea of getting married here even if he didn’t want to admit.  

Before we could settle in there, we heard more cars arrive. Our guests were arriving from different parts of the world.  

The first ones to arrive after us were our closest families. We separated to help them put their luggage in their houses. I spent some time with my mum first and then with my dad. 

While they were settling in, Chris and I met up to check out the venue for the first time. Chris came out from his family’s cabin. I waited for him as he walked towards me. He was wearing a plaid shirt, dark jeans and sunglasses. “That is one handsome boy I’m marrying,” I grinned and put my hands in my pockets. “Can’t wait until he has a wedding band on his finger, so other girls know he’s mine.” 

He looked around and shrugged. “What girls? I haven’t seen any other girls in almost 3 years, it’s like they disappeared...” 

“Oh, you always know what to say, don’t you?” I grinned and gave him a kiss on the cheek.  

“Yeah, I’m like that,” he nodded. “Now let’s see that wedding venue.” Dodger followed us closely and run around the field, sniffing everything. 

I took Chris' hand and we marched up the hill. I saw a tree on the edge of the hill, which was decorated with delicate flowers. Its branches were low enough to make it look like some kind of an arch. It was surrounded with dark wooden chairs with flower stalks on them. “Oh God, Chris,” I gasped when I took it all in. “This is so beautiful, so simple... Can we just get married right here, right now?” 

“I told you I wanted to elope as soon as you said yes.” he sighed and pulled me toward the tree. I took a closer look at the flowers and stalks and just the whole thing that really looked good altogether. “But I’m really glad we came here to do this.” 

I noticed candle stands and flowerbeds waiting to be filled tomorrow. Claire joined us and showed some details. “I know you wanted the ceremony to start at 6pm, but I’d suggest you move it to 6:39, because the sunset will give us a perfect lightning.” 

We both agreed. She moved us to the actual venue, which was a bigger cabin with only one, big room inside. All the tables were set already, the walls decorated with lights, plants and more flowers. It was so simple, yet thought through. The roof was completely covered with light that haven’t been lit yet. I was speechless.  

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to enjoy the moment for too long. Our party squad had arrived and they wanted to start our bachelor’s and bachelorette’s right away. We managed to put those off until the rest of our guests arrived. 

When we went back to our bedroom, I noticed that our baggage had already been brought in. My dress was hidden in the wardrobe, while Chris' suit was out. Dodger was walking around behind us, sniffing every corner of the room. “Why is it not unlucky for a bride to see her groom's suit?” I wondered, touching the rich fabric of the Gucci suit. The team came in one day and took Chris' measurements to make him the well-tailored suit in front of me. It was black – I was rooting for dark blue, because Chris looks amazing in it, but they decided against it.  

“I have no idea, but it’s probably because men are helpless without women and need their opinions on everything,” he wrapped his arms around my waist and rest his head on my shoulder. “We’re getting married in 30 hours.”  

“Yeah, and they’re trying to separate us for the majority of the time we have left as an engaged couple.” 

“We have to get though this,” he cheered. “If we got through 5 weeks of no sex, then we can get through this.” 

I sighed, looking out the window and seeing Amy come closer to our house. “I still can’t believe we actually did that.” 

Soon enough, there were two crowds of people in our cabin, waiting for us to separate. Neither of us really wanted that. We were a little tired and wanted to continue our nap. “If you don’t do this, we’re going to cancel the whole wedding, tell everyone you’re both crack addicts and can’t make your own decisions.” Sophie said with her arms crossed on her chest, keeping her threatening gaze on us.  

“Whoa, that’s rough.” Adam commented. “We just want to get him shitfaced, not ruin his life.” 

Chris was still holding me tightly against his body. We honestly didn’t want to go. He was probably the only reason I was still quite calm, even though I was FUCKING GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW.  

“Guys, how about you give us 30 minutes, huh? We haven’t seen each other in a week and honestly fell asleep the same moment we entered the plane. Give us half an hour and we’re ready to go, alright?” Chris asked. They all agreed to give us some more time, so we laid down on the bed to get some more rest together. Dodger seemed to realise that we needed to be close to each other right now and laid next to Chris’ legs. 

“So, if there something you’d like to tell me before we get married?” I asked. 

Chris glanced at me curiously, probably surprised by the question. “What do you mean?” 

I giggled. “Like, if you ever killed anyone and was too scared to admit it.” 

He was visibly relieved and probably thought I was going to accuse him of infidelity or something. “No, nothing like that. I think you should know by now that I’m not like that.” 

I turned to lay on my side and look at him. “I know, baby,” I smiled and pressed a kiss against his bicep. “That’s why I’m marrying you. Also, because of your big dick.” 

Chris burst out laughing. “Yeah, I mean, good dick is important, right,” he admitted. “So, is there anything you’d like to tell me before I tie myself up to you forever?” 

I sat up next to him and snuck my hand under his shirt to scratch he hair on his chest. “I’m changing my name to Emilia Evans,” I smiled. Chris also pulled himself up to face me. “I don’t know if I’m going to use it professionally yet, but I’m definitely changing it legally.” 

“Oh my God,” he lit up and wrapped his arms around me. “But you said that you weren’t so sure about this.” 

“Well, yeah, but I thought about it and figured that I’m not too attached to my last name and if it’s important to you, I want to do this.” I explained.  

“I can’t believe this,” Chris sighed. I smiled at his excitement and put my hands on each side of his face and pulled him in for a kiss. Chris licked my bottom lip playfully and tackled me down to lay under him. When I was right under him, he pulled away to look at me. “I’m still not entirely convinced it's real life, baby” 

“It is, Evans,” I sighed. “It only gets better from here...” 

I heard a loud knock on the bedroom door and we knew that our 30 minutes had come to an end. We were soon violently torn away from each other and brought to different cabins for the festivities prepared for us. Amy, Marie and Sophie were the ones who had me for the evening. Scarlett was supposed to join too, but she couldn’t fly in so early with her daughter. 

Chris was kidnapped by Adam, Seth, Sam and Tom, who wouldn’t tell him or me where they were going, but I knew that Sebastian, Anthony and Hemsworth were supposed to join them soon.  The girls took me to their cabin, which was meant to be our party spot for the evening. 

They were kind enough you hang balloons spelling “Fun is over” above a table full of food and colourful drinks. I noticed that they also prepared some games (obviously). “Emily, this is your last night as a single woman. Sit down and let us entertain you,” They sat me down and took a photo of me holding a drink and sitting under the balloons. “You can post it on Instagram when you decide to let the people know about your wedding.” Amy grinned. 

“You can drink all you want, but for every glass of alcohol, we're making you drink a glass of water, so you’re not completely hangover tomorrow.” Mary said, handing me my first mojito of the night. “That’s us being responsible.” 

They started off by saying how beautiful they think everything looked and were impressed by how much can be done without even visiting the site before the actual wedding. They all talked about how they want to get married too.  

“I think it’s weird that I never really thought of getting married before I met Chris. Like, I thought of having a fairy tale wedding when I had that crush on Steven in second grade, but I never thought I’d get married before the age of 24.” I took a sip of my drink through a metal straw.  

“Yeah. To be honest, out of 4 of us, I always thought that you'd be the last one to get married,” Amy agreed. “Not that you wouldn’t find a man or anything, I just though you were too independent for this.” 

I tilted my head to the side. “Oh, he doesn’t affect my independence in any way. I was worried about that at first, before we talked about our future together, children and stuff, but now it’s all sorted out.” I explained. “I actually got an IUD last month, so he realises that having children isn’t only one missed pill away now, it’s one medical procedure away. He was fine with it.”  

“I’m glad then,” Amy smiled. “You’re strong, but him being 11 years older and stuff, I was afraid he’d maybe try to force you or something. Don’t take this the wrong way, but sometimes when they ask him about having children in the future during interviews, he sounds a bit desperate.”  

I laughed. “Yeah, he does. He really loves children, so I’m not surprised. I just got used to it.”  

“Does he have a breeding kink?” Sophie asked out of nowhere. I nearly choked on my drink and Mary froze with a mouth full of Cheetos. “What? It’s very common.” 

“Sophie, that’s surely the most private thing you have asked any of us, ever.” Mary laughed. 

“She told us about the time they tried anal!” Sophie yelled. 

“Two times.” I corrected. “And I don’t think he has it or at least he’s ever done anything that would resemble it, but that would be kind of hot.”  

“Em, you should know, every smutty game we're going to play was her idea.” Mary sighed. “I’m only in charge of your answers for the newlyweds game.” 

“And I’m charge of asking about how big his penis is.” Amy grinned. “You only ever said that it’s big, but that could mean so many things...” 

“18 centimetres,” I answered quickly. “By the way, I really hope this isn’t our last night to do immature stuff.” 

Mary shook her head. “Of course not, there’s at least 3 more bachelorette parties ahead of us,” she reminded. “And also, what the fuck!? He's 18 centimetres? How do you walk? Harry is 15 and I can barely... wow.” 

“Ok, I think we've already established that Chris isn't only well endowed, but also skilled, so it’s not the matter of his length.” Sophie said.  

“Yeah, he’s... do you remember when I spent that night with ??? and I told you that there must be something wrong with me, because I felt nothing, and I literally mean nothing? Like, he was going down on me and I had to take every movement and sound I was making. I was so afraid of our first time with Chris, because it was not only us having sex for the first time, but also me having my first time at all. And it was just incredible, because I didn’t have to fake anything! I was moaning so much that I was afraid he’d think I’m faking.” 

“I remember. And I told you that there’s nothing wrong with you, he was just bad at sex. Chris is generous on a daily basis, so he’s also generous in bed.” Mary shrugged, taking another drink. 

“What’s the most times he has made you come during one session?” Amy asked. 

I sighed. “Well, if he’s well rested and hasn’t been to the gym that day then I cum twice for his one time. If he goes down on me then it, you know, depends on how long he’s willing to do that... or when I start asking him to stop.” 

“You have to ask him to stop!?”  

“Yeah, I get oversensitive sometimes.” 

Mary sat back on the sofa, looking like she just found out that Santa Claus isn’t real. “You know, I was never jealous about your acting career, because we know that even if you earn more than decent money and have a month off, then it means you worked 18 hours a day for the last two. But for the love of God, you are less than 24 hours away from marrying a man who eats you out until you actually beg him to stop. I’m starting to get jealous.”  

“He has bad qualities too, you know,” I sighed. “He’s very indecisive and, to be honest, he was the one with commitment issues. We had a few months last year, right after we moved in together and before we got engaged when we barely talked, because he felt like we would get tired of each other too soon. Even though he was the one who suggested we moved in together.”  

They ran our of things to ask about our sex life, finally. Although, it was such a random conversation that I actually enjoyed it. They gave me some presents, actually showered me with them. “We have only just realised that half of them is sex accessories, sorry,” Amy shrugged, handing me another box. “Chris will probably enjoy them as much as you will, though.” 

After my fourth drink and fourth glass of water, I was a little bit drunk already. “Do you think we will last?” I asked, laying down on the sofa, playing with the flowers in my flower crown.  

“I think Chris is glued to you like my father's nose to his TV.” Sophie said. “If you called him right now, he would be here in a second.”  

“There’s nothing you could ask him that he would say no to. Unless it’s a threesome, I don’t think he would want to share you.” Amy agreed. 

“Yeah, but I mean... do you think we will be just another couple that divorces after 5 years? That’s probably what everyone thinks.” 

“Who cares? You’re marrying Chris Evans, one of the hottest men on Earth, Captain America, with a big dick attached to him and a great personality, despite being a Gemini!” Sophie explained.  

“A big dick attached to him!” Amy burst into laughter. “That is the best thing ever!” 

We stayed up until 2 am, when I decided that I was tired enough to fall asleep without bigger problems. They made me sleep in one of their rooms, so I wouldn’t run back and sleep with Chris.  

The moment I was alone, I texted Chris, asking if he was awake. He called right away. “Hi baby,” he said in a low voice.  

“Wait, you were asleep?” I asked. “You finished your party earlier than we did?” 

“Baby, I’m 35,” he whined. “If I want to be alright for a whole day of preparations, a wedding, reception and the whole night of lovemaking, I gotta get some quality sleep.”  

I laughed. “Sure. I just called to check if you’re alright and not in Vegas by now.”  

“Nah, we had a few drinks and talked. Also, I’m ashamed to admit that we did play a few drinking games.”  

“Well, I forgive you. You don’t know any better.” I sighed into the pillow. “Are you nervous?” 

“Like hell.” He admitted. “I can't believe this is finally happening. I can't believe it's already been a year since we got engaged.” 

I remembered the day we drove to see Loch Ness and he just decided to drop on one knee. I can’t believe it’s been so long since that day. “I’m really glad you almost killed me at that airport.” 

“Oh, that’s just exaggerating.” 

We talked some more, but mostly just stayed silent, listening to each other's breaths. About an hour in, we decided we had to go to sleep. “I’ll see you at the altar, right?” he chuckled. 

“Yeah, I can’t wait.” I turned to lay on to my back and stared at the ceiling. “Don’t be late, please.” 

“Wouldn't dare, I’m counting seconds until I can finally see you, love.” 


	11. Keep it PG-13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Love is definitely in the Norvegian air... EDIT: here's the link to a Pinterest board which served as inspiration for this chapter: https://pin.it/7ns4aq7ax7h5du

„Don't touch it!” the hair stylist yelled as I tried to feel the pins she put in my hair. „I'll tell you when it’s done, ok?”

„Ok.” I smiled. I knew she was trying something new and I was very excited to see what it was.

My makeup was already done in only 15 minutes by Amy. I didn’t want anything flashy or strong, so she did a bit of contour with blush, a light brown eye shadow and a light pink lipstick.

„God, you look so good with so little...” she sighed as she put matting powder on me. They did go crazy with highlighter on my neck and collarbones, but it all looked right together.

„Ok, I’ll take a picture and show you.” Cara, the stylist said and I heard the camera sound. She handed me her phone and I saw my light brown, shoulder length hair down, but pulled back a bit with two thin braids coming from the sides and joining in the middle. They were decorated with small flowers „The flowers aren’t supporting the hair or anything, so you can just take them out later.”

„Oh, I love it...” I turned on my seat and tried to see my hair in the mirror. “I’m so glad we didn’t do an updo.”

I turned to look at my mom, who was sitting on the bed, all done and waiting for me. “You look so beautiful.”

My dad walked into the room, sorting out his handcuffs and stopped to look at me. “That is true...”

I stood up and walked up to the bed, where my dress was laid. It was everything that I ever dreamt of. It wasn’t very flashy, or even expensive. I chose one with a lace, off-shoulder top, which had white leaves all over it. It had to be put on very gently, because the bits were connected by a very thin material. The dress itself was silky and plain, but had a cut along my left leg, up to my thigh. I remembered that Chris liked it when I wear dresses with cuts, so I chose it.

My dad left, so my mum, Amy and Cara, helped me gently put the dress on, without tearing the material. I was standing in front of a mirror and could barely hold tears when they were bottoming it up on the back. I couldn’t wear a regular bra with it, so I had to use a nude strapless and seamless one. I never liked them, but now I had to suck it up.

“Chris is going to get married with his jaw on the ground.” Amy joked.

“Oh, he always reacts to Em wearing a dress like a Pavlov dog to a bell and now it will be a wedding dress, so I bet he’s going to faint or something." Hannah joked.

“So you're saying that my daughter is marrying a man who treats her like an object?” my mum asked, half serious, half joking.

“Once, when he was a little bit drunk, he told Lucas that he sometimes likes to just look at Emily, because he can’t wrap his finger around that fact that she’s real and is with him,” Amy explained. “So, I’m guessing he just can't believe his luck.”

“Seems like neither of us can,” I said, tilting my head to the side and touching the fabric of the dress. “How long until we start?”

“30 minutes,” Amy checked on her watch. “Don’t sit down, ok? You’ll wrinkle the dress.”

“Ok, ok,” I nodded, not taking my eyes of my reflection. My mum put a necklace around my neck. I noticed it was hers, which she wore on some special occasions. “Mum?”

“I hope it brings you more luck in marriage than it did me,” she whispered. “Maybe it only works once in two generations.”

I looked closely at the delicate gold with a single, small pearl. My grandmother got it from her mother on her wedding day and now it’s become a family tradition. “I really do.”

“Chris is a great man, I know you’re going to make a wonderful family, honey.”

“Em, Chris is coming,” Amy announced. “He looks stressed.”

“Wait, he can’t see me, I’m…” I panicked.

“Emily, Chris wants to talk.” My dad stepped in. “He said that you can do this through the door.”

_“Isn’t this fun that you do a lot of stuff for the first time with me?” Chris whispered as we were leaving the stage at Comic Con 2014._

_“I think it’s very, very fun,” I agreed. “A lot of stuff we do is fun…”_

_As we got off the stage and were only around our co-stars, I took Chris’ hand. I was a bit tired, as I woke up early for makeup and I just wished I could go back to sleep right now. Unfortunately, we still had autograph signing and some press ahead of us. Chris gripped my hand in a reassuring way, but it wasn’t the same as always. I felt that he was nervous himself and immediately thought about the anxiety attacks he gets sometimes._

_“Baby, are you alright?” I whispered as we slowed down._

_He looked around, trying to figure out if anyone was around. “Well, I am…”_

_“Chris…”_

_“Ok, well… Being at Comic Con isn’t very fun for me. I get anxious when a whole hall is facing and staring at me. There’s been too many people who would come up to me and say that they thought I was bigger or taller.” He explained, taking my other hand. He sighed and wrapped his arms around me. He then snuggled his face into my hair. “You’re my safe place.”_

_I giggled against his warm chest. “If that makes you feel any better, you were exactly as big as I thought you’d be, even bigger.” I mumbled, my voice muffled by his sweater. “Also, you’re a real-life Captain America, baby.”_

_“Thank you.” He whispered._

_I pulled away from him, still holding onto his forearm. “Just remember that I’m here for you, ok? I’ll be right next to you for the whole evening, so every time you start to feel anxious just come to me, alright?”_

“Do you remember when you told me to come to you if I felt anxious?” I heard Chris’ voice through the open door.

I leaned on the wall and smiled. “Yeah, over 2 years ago.”

“I hate myself for being so nervous on the happiest day of my life,” he sighed. “I’ve waited so long for this and now I’m barely stopping myself from smoking a cigarette and I don’t want to smell like an ashtray for our first moments as a married couple and…”

“Chris, hold it,” I stopped him. “Hold out your hand, please.”

He hesitated for a moment, but then stuck his hand out through the open door. I intertwined our fingers and squeezed his hand. “Why are you nervous? Do you not want to get married?”

I heard him chuckle. “Proposing to you is the best decision I ever made and in an hour, getting married will be the best thing I’ve ever done, but it’s scary, you know? What if I fail as a husband and…”

“Chris, if we weren’t getting married, would you want to be with me in a year?” I asked.

“For the rest of my life, Em.” He stated.

“Then why are you scared?” I asked.

“I don’t want to fuck anything up. I was the one who insisted on committing and then got scared and then proposed. Now, I really want to marry you, but...”

“No but, Christopher,” I interrupted him. “Close your eyes and keep them shut.”

I took a few seconds before walking slowly through the door. Chris was standing there in his black suit, looking fine as hell. I wanted to kiss him so bad, but I knew that there were more important matters to take care of. “Chris, I know you can’t see me, but I’m standing here in a wedding dress and you’re in your suit. People are already sitting at the altar and my father's just a few meters away, ready to kick your ass. I know that your life isn’t all glam and peace and I don't expect it to be that way, so please remember that our relationship is the thing you can be sure of and you don’t have to worry about it. I'm your safe place, remember? And you're mine.”

“I love you so much,” he whispered. “I’ll see you at the altar, okay?”

I placed my hands on either side of his face and brushed my thumb against his cheek. “Don’t be nervous, please. It’s just me. It’s us. We’re just sealing the deal on something we’ve agreed to a long time ago.”

Chris took a big breath and tilted his head back, with his eyes still closed. “You perfect creature,” he sighed. “I wanna kiss you so much right now, but I’ll do this at the altar.” He reached for my hand and kissed it.

When I came back to the bedroom, my mum, dad, Amy and Cara were all sitting there, probably thinking the wedding was off. “We was just nervous.” I said.

“He should be,” my dad nodded. “Emilia, you tell me if something is ever wrong.”

“Oh, come on, Mr. Dawson – Chris might have had some minor commitment issues, but he can’t function without Emily, so the only reason they’d ever break up is if she gets tired of him, which won’t happen, because they’re basically perfect for each other.” Amy said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

I didn’t let that conversation go on and reminded everyone that I was getting married in about 10 minutes and still had to add some finishing touches, like putting my engagement ring back on, earrings and some highlighter on my body.

I was never the one to self-compliment myself, but the final look was all I’ve always wanted to look like at my wedding. I never thought I’d have the resources to have it all exactly as I had planned and I was feeling extremely grateful for it. So grateful, that I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by that fact that we were able to fly out and fly our guests to a different continent just to get married, while some people struggle with their basic needs. Chris and I did ask our guests not to give us any gifts and send money to a fund set up by us, which we would transfer to a charity of our choice, but I had something more in mind.

“Are you ready?” I heard my mum say behind me. I nodded.

The sun was setting, just as Claire had planned. I held my dad’s arm as we were walking up the hill. Amy and my mum were ahead of me, while we were in the back. The photographer joined us and took a few photos. I probably looked so pale and nervous as if I wasn’t happy. At some point, Dodger joined us out of nowhere and started to run around us again and again, following us to the altar.

I was holding a small bouquet made of field flowers and plants, with some roses. I wanted it to be simple and match the area.

We walked and walked and then I saw out guests sitting in front of the altar. And then I saw Chris, talking to the marriage officiant. I had seen him today wearing his suit as well as at every event we’ve been to, but it was different right now. I could see how nervous he was, just like me, but in a different way. He was afraid of not being enough. After years of being a on and off boyfriend for a few women, he was about to become a husband – something he always wanted, but became anxious now that it was happening.

That was normal. We were about to tie ourselves to each other for the rest of our lives. Sure, we could just get a divorce if it turned out we weren’t meant to be together, but who wants to ever admit that?

Our guests noticed me and started to stand up. Chris turned to look at them and then lifted his gaze to meet mine. He smiled immediately and straightened up. My dad stopped me delicately at the last row and turned to me. “Are you sure?” he asked.

“Dad,” I chuckled. “I have never been more sure of anything. He’s not flawless, but he is mine.”

My dad nodded and took another step. I looked back at Chris and he seemed relieved that we were moving again. I couldn’t believe it was happening. Every step was taking me closer to being Chris’ wife. “If he ever does anything…”

“Dad…” I cut him off. “I know.”

We were almost there. Dodger surpassed us and was now near Chris and demanded some attention from him. “Buddy, I’m not going to play with you now, I’m getting married.” To which I giggled.

Chris was just 3 meters away from me when we stopped at the front row. I saw my mom in tears and Lisa on the other side. Then I shifted my gaze to Scott who was standing right behind Chris. He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned. Then I looked at Amy, who had tears in her eyes and was also smiling. Then I looked at Dodger, who sat right next to the officiant's legs and it looked like he was about to marry us.

And then I moved to Chris. He was standing with his hands in front of him, looking at me proudly. My dad took my hand from under his arm and looked at me and then at Chris. “She was never my property and she won’t be yours either. I hope I did a decent job keeping her company during her first years on this planet and now it’s your turn to be her companion. Don’t do worse than me and you’ll be alright.”

Chris nodded lightly, his face completely serious. “Dad, that was really deep.” I whispered, trying to lighten the tension.

My dad looked at me as if he wanted to reprimand me for bad behaviour, but he couldn’t, because we were standing in front of a crowd that came to see me get married. He just chuckled and slowly handed my hand to Chris. It was a movie like movement – Chris reached to put his fingers under my palm and his thumb on top of it. He brushed it against my skin. “Better.” He whispered.

My dad backed out to sit with my mum and I stood in front of Chris, with the officiant to my left.

“Welcome, family, friends and loved ones. We gather here today to celebrate the wedding of Emilia and Christopher,” the officiant started, causing Chris and me to grin. “You have come here to share in this formal commitment they make to one another, to offer your love and support to this union, and to allow Emilia and Christopher to start their married life together surrounded by the people dearest and most important to them. So welcome to one and all, who have travelled from near and far. Amy and Scott, thank you for your presence here today and now ask for your blessing, encouragement, and lifelong support, for their decision to be married.”

Chris and I couldn’t take our eyes off each other. To be honest, I thought that maybe neither of us believed that this was actually happening. “Marriage is perhaps the greatest and most challenging adventure of human relationships. No ceremony can create your marriage; only you can do that—through love and patience; through dedication and perseverance; through talking and listening, helping and supporting and believing in each other; through tenderness and laughter; through learning to forgive, learning to appreciate your differences, and by learning to make the important things matter, and to let go of the rest. What this ceremony can do is to witness and affirm the choice you make to stand together as lifemates and partners.”       

I don’t think either of us heard a lot of what the officiant had to say, until he turned to Chris. “Will you, Christopher Robert, take Emilia Alexandra to be your wedded wife?”

“I will.” Chris answered quickly and firmly.

Then he turned to me. “Will you, Emilia Alexandra, take Christopher Robert to be your wedded husband?”

“I will.” I followed.

“We've come to the point of your ceremony where you're going to say your vows to one another. But before you do that, I ask you to remember that love—which is rooted in faith, trust, and acceptance— will be the foundation of an abiding and deepening relationship. No other ties are more tender, no other vows more sacred than those you now assume. If you are able to keep the vows you take here today, not because of any religious or civic law, but out of a desire to love and be loved by another person fully, without limitation, then your life will have joy and the home you establish will be a place in which you both will find the direction of your growth, your freedom, and your responsibility. Please now read the vows you have written for each other.” The officiant motioned us to start.

Chris smiled and cleared his throat. “I, Christopher Robert, take you, Emilia Alexandra, to be my wife, friend, partner and my love. I will constantly work to make myself worthy of being your husband for the rest of my life. The moment I met you, I knew I couldn’t just take you for granted and I thank you for making me fight for you, because now I know how much I need you in my life. Our life. You are what makes me realise that there is something called love at first sight and it does happen when you meet the right person. I am truly blessed to be a part of your life, which as of today becomes our life. You are my other half. You are the one that makes me laugh when I'm sad, makes me consider when I want to be rash, and finds me when I am lost. You are what excites me and calms me down. I promise to be your faithful husband. I vow to give you the best of me and of my heart. I vow to re-watch _The_ _Office_ every time you feel sad. I promise to love you when the sun shines, when the rain falls, in sickness, and in health. You're the person I waited for and you were worth the wait.”

I wished it was already the time for us to kiss. I knew he would write a beautiful vow, but that was just so much more than I expected. My only hope was that the mascara they put on me was waterproof.

It was my turn to say mine, so I took a deep breath so my voice wouldn’t break. “I, Emilia Alexandra, take you, Christopher Robert, to be my husband, my friend, the home I come home to. You are my best friend, my confidant – marrying you is truly my every desire fulfilled. You have stuck by me through the best and worst, and loved all that I am. You help me to be the finest version of me that I can. You make me feel safe and confident, just by keeping me company. As your wife, I promise to love you with the same determination and confidence you've given me. I vow to support you through more ups and downs. I pledge to commit myself to our family and the good I know will grow from it. I hope I will meet your expectations for the life you have always wanted, because I know you will meet mine. I hope you will still enjoy my cooking like you have for the last two years, even though I think it’s alright at most, and that you will still tolerate my singing voice, light head and mood swings. I know you will, because you are the kindest, most patient and beautiful person I know.”

The officiant waited a bit after I finished, giving us some time to cool down, before we moved to the final part. “May I have the rings, please?”

I looked behind Chris at Scott, who reached into his breast pocket and pulled out the small box with our rings in it. He handed it to the officiant. “Now, Christopher, please repeat after me,” he said, giving Chris my ring and joined our hands. “I give you this ring…”

“I give you this ring…” Chris started, holding the ring just near my finger.

“As a daily reminder of my love to you.”

“As a daily reminder of my love to you.” He finished, putting the ring on my finger.

I grinned at him, as he lifted his gaze to me. I felt the cold metal on my skin, but also Chris’ warm hands around mine.

“Emilia, please repeat after me,” the officiant turned to me and gave me Chris’ ring. “I give you this ring…”

I lowered my gaze to our connected hands and focused on that one finger. “I give you this ring…” I said, looking up.

“As a daily reminder of my love to you.”

“As a daily reminder of my love to you.” I repeated, sliding the ring onto his finger.

We continued to hold onto each other’s hands, simply smiling and waiting for the officiant to say something. It was over. The ceremony was over and our married life was only beginning.

“By the power of your love and commitment, and the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife! You may kiss each other.” He announced happily, closing his book.

Chris slowly pulled me in his way and let go of my palm only to wrap his arm around my waist. He pushed me against himself delicately and put his other hand on my cheek. He leaned down to connect our lips. I brought him even closer to me by wrapping my arms around his neck, but we did try to keep the kiss PG-13. We were so in the moment, only focused on ourselves, that we didn't notice that everyone stood up and clapped for us. Chris carried on kissing me, tilting me back slightly, probably for the drama effect.

Chris broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against mine. We both grinned widely and turned to our guests with our hands intertwined.

Hemsworth and Mackie both whistled at us. Not one person in the first and second rows had dry eyes, just like me. Chris offered me his arm, guided me off the altar and we walked between our guests.

“Are you ready for a party, Mrs. Evans?” my husband asked, leaning down.

“I’m ready for anything with you, husband.” I kissed his cheek, walking proudly towards the venue, still not believing what was happening.

We neared the venue and I completely forgot about what we were supposed to do now. Was it the first dance or the toast? Or maybe I should throw my bouquet? “Chris, what do we do now?”

“I think we are supposed to greet our guests at the venue entrance and then a toast,” He whispered back as we stood by the venue’s door. “I wish we could just skip all of this…”

“Why? Do you want to start our wedding night so bad?” I teased him.

“No, I’m just afraid of what my friends might say during toasts.” He chuckled.

I raised my eyebrow. “If there’s something they could say that you’re afraid of, then maybe we should have had the toasts before the ceremony.”

Our guests walked up to us to congratulate, one by one. As per our request, none of them brought us flowers or any gifts – instead, within a few days before our wedding, our fund received multiple donations and we were to double the amount and choose a suitable cause. Dodger kept us company for the whole time, never left our side.

After we finished talking to our guests, Chris took my hand and pulled me inside. We found our seats and Chris pulled out the chair for me. “I think your dad is first,” Chris whispered as he sat next to me. “I hope he doesn’t say how unworthy I am of being your husband.”

I rolled my eyes. “Calm down, he will just wish us good luck. I’m more afraid of what Amy and Scott have prepared.”

“Right,” Chris nodded, putting his arm on the back of my chair. “they know way too much about our sex life.”

“That’s right, brother,” Scott leaned in next to us. “There’s a slideshow.”

I looked at Chris who turned to me, both of us terrified of what was coming. We should have had Scott and Amy’s phones checked before we let them prepare speeches.

“Hello everyone,” my dad started, standing in front of the microphone with one hand in his pocket and the other holding a glass of champagne. “First of all, I’d like to thank everyone for coming to my daughter’s wedding, I’m glad that she found so many kind people she wanted to share this day with. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting this to happen so soon, but time flies so fast that I can’t believe that it’s been more than 5 years since she moved out of our family house. I mean, it feels like only yesterday she was still driving my car and pretending that she’s never seen the scratches she caused.”

Everyone laughed, so I just smiled and shrugged. “I still stand by that, dad.”

“Of course, of course,” he chuckled. “Anyway, Em met Chris during a difficult time for our family, when her mother and I thought that our relationship didn’t affect our children anymore, because they were all grown up. It was so bad that I found out about their relationship through the Internet. I have to be honest, when I saw the headline ‘ _Emilia Dawson dating Chris Evans_ ’ I almost had a heart attack.” He then turned to us. “Not because I thought it was you, Chris, no. I genuinely thought my daughter was dating the British radio host, Chris Evans, who is like 50 years old and married.” He explained. “So, when I read the rest, I was quite relieved.” He smiled and put one hand on his chest. “Anyway, even though it was still early in their relationship, Chris was a huge support to Emily, when we couldn’t be and still is. When Emily moved to New York and was there on her own, we could see that she didn’t feel comfortable, because she would come back home every chance she got. Now, even though we don’t get to see her as much, I know it’s because she finally found her home with Chris.”

I felt Chris squeeze my hand, so I looked up at him. His eyes were watering again. I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “And what were you afraid of, exactly?”

“Now, before we drink to the newlyweds’ good luck, I have to say something to fulfil my duty as a father,” he cleared his throat. “Chris, if my daughter ever complains about you, you will be in trouble.”

Chris chuckled and nodded. My dad raised a toast and came back to his seat.

Since no one is more critical of the groom than the bride’s father, Chris was a bit more relaxed when his father spoke. And then it was time.

“Hello everyone,” Scott spoke right into the microphone. “This is the moment Emily and my brother feared the most. And rightfully so. Amy and I, with the help from other people, have prepared a slideshow to show you the history of their relationship.”

“Chris and Emily met at the JFK airport in New York, when they were both boarding a plane to Los Angeles. Chris almost tackled her down to the ground, when he was speeding to catch the plane.” Scott explained. “After the flight, Emily probably thought he was just another loud American, who wanted to sue everything and everyone, but then it turned out he was her new co-star! What a coincidence!”

“Yes, and that was February 13th, when Chris threw a party for his friends and co-stars. Now, we do have some photos from that party.” Amy said and they showed a photo we took of everyone who was there that night. “That’s a lovely photo… Now let’s see another one.” She switched to the next one, which was a close up of Chris and I. I was sitting on his kitchen counter and he was turned to me and leaning against it. “And one more…” A photo of us in his backyard, talking after I my mum called me.

“I took all of these, by the way,” Scott interrupted. “And even then I knew I would be showing them at their wedding.”

We saw more photos of Chris not keeping his hands to himself during parties, especially when he was a bit drunk. Scott also included some paparazzi shots of similar nature. I could only imagine how much my dad regretted those kind words about Chris now. „I honestly didn’t know he was doing that.” Chris whispered.

“But we have so many nice pictures together, why would they only choose the ones where you’re manhandling me…” I groaned and put my head on his shoulder.

Thankfully, we survived the slideshow. We reached peak embarrassment when they showed a video of me, sitting on a sofa. Scott recorded Chris walking up to me, sitting right next to me and lowering his head to lay against my cleavage. “Home…” he whined against my skin and make everyone in the video and at our reception laugh.

Everyone laughed, apart from Chris, who now put his face in his hands. “I’m going to kill him,” he mumbled. I put my hand on his shoulder. “But not before your father kills me.”

“That’s what younger siblings are for, Chris.” I chuckled.

The rest wasn’t so bad – it was actually quite sweet. Amy and Scott invited some people to the stage to talk about us. They weren’t as candid about our relationship as Chris’ brother and my best friend.

The biggest group that joined Scott were Robert, Scarlett, Chris, Mark, Jeremy, Aaron, Anthony and Sebastian

“Hello,” Robert started. “We’re here on behalf of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and other people employed by Marvel, who didn’t get the invitation.” Everyone laughed. “Most of us got to see the love between Miss Britain and Captain America grow from day one.” He held out his one finger.

“Yes and thanks to that I got a free SPA weekend, after I made a bet with Emily!” Scarlett cut in. Chris looked at me with his eyebrow raised.

“She just knows you too well.” I shrugged.

“Anyway, I’m very thankful that Chris met Emily,” Mark continued. “Since they got together, my wife has let me hang out with Chris past 8PM again, I don’t sleep on my porch anymore and my kids started to respect me again.”

Chris couldn’t stop laughing, probably remembering the times he was out with Mark and outdrank him, or something.

“Life with the both of you together isn’t always easy, though,” Sebastian said. “Even though Emily calms Chris down a bit, sometimes you make a very dynamic, dramatic and loud duo. I mean, we did have to stop you from doing the Dirty Dancing lift.”

“We can actually do it, though!” Chris interrupted. “And we’re doing it tonight!”

Anthony looked at him and shook his head in disbelief. “You’ve asked us not to bring any gifts, but we did bring you one.” He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out a piece of paper, which resembled a large ticket. “This will allow you to sing five songs during karaoke with us, whenever you want. You know why we’re doing this, but the rest of your guests might not know.” Anthony looked at us, then at the rest of the tables. “Well, while this duo might be talented actors, they’re not very good singers, especially when drunk.”

“Terrible, I would say.” Robert cut in.

“I had to have my hearing checked.” Jeremy added.

The open mic was finally over. Although, our co-stars promised one more surprise, but they said it would have to wait.

It was time for our first dance. Chris helped me off my chair and we walked to the middle of the room, hand in hand.

We didn’t have a choreography or anything. We’ve danced together enough to know what to do now.

The light sounds of _Baby I’m Yours_ by Arctic Monkeys played through the speakers. Chris wasn’t a huge fan of us dancing to their song, mainly because I used to have a crush on their frontman. He gave in eventually.

With his hands gently gripping me at my waist, we moved to the rhythm. We couldn’t take our eyes off each other, not for one moment.

“I wonder what it will take for me to realise that this is actually happening,” he whispered into my ear as he spun me around once. I smiled and freed my hand from his grip to wrap my arms around his neck. Even with all those people around us, I felt like we were alone. Chris' eyes on mine, me drowning in his.

“Probably the end of our wedding night.” I suggested.

He chuckled while spinning me around once more, this time holding my back against his chest. “I’ll make sure it never ends...”

I threw my head back in laughter. “Well, if that’s the case,” I turned to face him again. “I’m really glad I’m yours, baby.”

He grinned and leaned in to give me a kiss. He tilted us back gently, doing a gentle dip and connecting our lips. I was always afraid of depending on people's strength while dancing, but I'd trust Chris with my life, so letting him hold me while I almost hover over the floor wasn’t a difficult decision.

I held onto my husband's bicep, still kissing him. He put us back up and broke the kiss, putting his forehead against mine. I kept my eyes shut and heard our guests cheer as the song ended.

Chris gave me one last kiss on the lips, before the DJ played another song. For the first few seconds, there was nothing suspicious about it. It was Islands in the Stream by Kenny Rodgers and Dolly Parton.

But then... the first words weren’t sang by Kenny, but by Robert Downey Jr himself. He stood off his chair, with a microphone and walked between the tables, singing the song. I looked over at Chris, who was just as surprised at me. Then Scarlett joined in, then Mark, Chris, Scott, Jeremy, Amy, Sophie, Anthony, Sebastian and Aaron. They sang the first verse, chorus and second verse. And when I thought that it was the end of surprises, instead of the last chorus they played a video of Chris and I singing the song in karaoke.

„Oh God!” I gasped before my jaw dropped. “They are ruthless.”

Chris couldn’t stop laughing at the video, especially the part where I stand on the sofa and he comes up to me, puts his arm around my thighs and lifts me up. It was the time he was working out for Civil War, so he was incredibly strong.

Everyone came to stand in a line with us, singing the song together until the end. I loved it, despite hearing my awful singing voice.

It was a truly magical evening for our families, friends and us, of course. For a long time I thought that weddings were just a waste of money and time, but today I realised how much it is about celebration.

Chris and I danced a lot, obviously. We decided to have a lot more parties that we do now, just so we can have our own playlist with songs we love dancing to. We parted or some time, when Mackie, Stan, my brothers and my dad asked me for a dance. Chris took this time to dance with some of his and my families.

We all sat back on our seats, eating, drinking and talking. Chris was next to me as we were eating our cake. He kept turning to me once in a while, just to take a look or kiss my temple. “Are you having fun?” he asked, when I finished my piece of cake and sat back.

I raised my eyebrow and couldn’t believe that he would ask me that at our wedding. “No, I am not, Christopher,” I joked, before putting my hand on his cheek and stroking his beard. “You stupid dork.” I leaned in to kiss him delicately. He tasted of vanilla and champagne, and I love it. As my hand is covering our lips slightly, I let his tongue slip into my mouth. I sighed as our tongues touched as we hadn’t shared a deep kiss since yesterday. It didn’t take Chris long to press his lips more roughly against mine. I had to make him tone down a little bit, because we couldn’t just pull off a full on making session right then and there. I moved to suck on his bottom lip gently and bit on it right before he pulled away. “What time is it?” he asked quietly.

“It’s 2:30,” I said. “Do you want to go back already?”

“Yeah,” He nodded, giving my exposed thigh a light squeeze. “I don’t think I can express how much I want to be alone with you right now, Emilia. Besides, half of the guests are at their cabins already…”

I smiled and looked around. I stood up and pulled Chris after me. We asked the DJ to fade out the music and took the mic. “Hello, we do hope you are all having a great time, this is your only duty as our guests,” I started with Chris behind me, with his wrapped around my waist. I bet everyone already knew what we wanted to say. “We decided it was the best time to head back to our cabin and have some time alone, but we encourage you to stay and have fun for as long as you want.”

Chris took the mic from me. “Yes, we will see you all tomorrow at lunch. Hangover aid will be provided, by the way.”

We said goodbye to a couple of people and headed back. As we were walking, I was holding Chris’ hand and felt the wedding band on his finger. “How long do you think we’ll be able to live in this wedding bliss?” I asked, as we neared our door.

“What do you mean?”

“Until people find out and start asking questions all the time, until we give them answers.” I explained.

Chris sighed and stopped. “We kept our engagement a secret for 5 months,” he smiled. “And we won’t be coming back to the USA for the next month. We will be spending time together, wherever you want, just you and I.”

I sighed, imagining what it will be like. “I wish we could just buy a cabin in the woods and stay there for the rest of our lives, cook and have great sex.”

Chris chuckled, running his fingers through my hair. “I’m afraid it’s not an option for the next few years, but I can arrange the cooking and sex bit.” He said, before connecting our lips again. He kissed me passionately, but not sloppily. He was being careful as to not to make it seem like he was just licking my face. He placed his hand on my neck, his thumb stroking my cheek. I wrapped mine around his wrist, as he pushed me gently against the door to our cabin. I gasped, when the cold wood touched my back. “Chris,” I moaned.

My husband didn’t exactly break the kiss – he just moved to my neck, so I could talk. “The dress is very delicate,” I whispered, not able to say everything in one sentence. “I don’t want it to rip.”

Chris pulled away, smiling. He reached to his pocket to take out the key to our cabin. When the door opened, I saw that room service had definitely visited us. Most of the furniture had been covered with flowers and candles here and there. “Oh, wow,” I said. “Do we light all of these?” I asked, turning to Chris.

“I’m happy with just keeping the lights on,” He answered. “You look spectacular today,” He whispered against my neck, his hot breath sending me chills. “I’m torn between undressing you and then devouring you or keeping the dress on and staring at you for an hour.”

I giggled. “I’d rather get out of this dress,” I admitted. “Also, as much as I love you in suits, I can’t wait until you get out of this one.”

“Good choice,” He chuckled and undid the dress’ first button on the top of my spine. “Let me take care of you tonight.” He attached his lips to every newly exposed part of my back.

“You always do.” I moaned and turned around as the dress was fully unbuttoned. Chris grabbed the material on my shoulders and pulled it down gently to reveal my bra and then white, lace panties. Unfortunately, the bra didn’t match the bottoms, because it would be visible while wearing the dress.

I put my lips on his and reached up to take his jacket off. I pushed it off and put my hands back on my husband's face to deepen the kiss. As his tongue started to massage mine, Chris grabbed my thighs and lifted me up. He moved to the edge of the bed and laid me down. I sat up and grabbed his hand to uncuff his cuff links. I took the time to watch the ring on his finger. Chris had other plans. He reached behind me to undo my bra and pushed me back to lay again. He climbed onto the bed to hover over me and sunk down to kiss my jaw and lick down my throat. I moaned lightly as he reached the space between my breasts. His hand travelled to one of them and he ran his fingers across the delicate skin, barely touching it, sending shivers across my whole body. I tangled my fingers into Chris’ hair and pulled on it, as my husband sucked on my nipple.

Chris pulled away and kneeled between my legs to take off his shirt. I smirked as it was off and I saw his hairy, tattooed and sculpted chest. “Finally.” I whispered. He shook his head and lowered himself to kiss my lips again, but this time he pressed his body against mine, rubbing his crotch against mine.

“I can’t believe tonight I’m finally going to make love to my wife,” He whispered before moving down my body until he had my pussy in front of him. “I love the panties, but let’s get rid of these, baby.” He slipped the lace material off me and tossed it to the floor.

As he lowered his head so his mouth was just inches away from my pussy, I lifted myself up on my elbows to look at his head between my legs. He loved to tease me. He pressed a kiss to my thigh, letting me feel his breath against my skin. The first thing he always does is to lick slowly somewhere between my entrance and my clit. Until I get frustrated and start wiggling my hips against his mouth.

He licked a strip up my slit, circling his tongue around my clit and then started to suck on it, making my body shiver. It’s been too long since we last had sex, but it was a good thing – being sex deprived right now was helping me enjoy our time together much more. Chris’ tongue devouring my pussy, his arms around my thighs, keeping them from closing around his head in ecstasy. My hand wandered to his hair, his neatly styled hair, which now had a few strands of hair standing out. I ran my fingers through it, pushing Chris lightly against my body. “Chris, please,” I moaned, arching my back as the climax was approaching. I released an obscene, nearly pornographic moan as the orgasm took over my body and the fact that Chris didn’t stop suck and caress my pussy wasn’t helping. As I stopped shivering and became quieter, my husband looked up at me and pushed himself up to stand up. He wiped his face before reaching his belt and unbuckling it. I watched him take off his trousers and underwear, freeing his nearly rock hard cock.

“God, look at you,” Chris whispered as he lowered himself to hover over me. “My wife.”

He set his elbows on the mattress, right next to my shoulders and slid his fingers into my hair. “Do you have any idea how much I love you, baby?” he asked quietly, before connecting our lips. We shared a few quick kisses, as Chris pushed his tip against my entrance. I gasped and placed my hands on his back.

“Chris, please,” I whined, as his lips moved to my jaw. His hips pushed, burying his length inside of me. “Yess.”

Chris started to move In and out, sometimes pulling completely out to slam back in again. It was a completely different feeling compared to just fucking on a daily basis. Chris kept his gaze on me, while thrusting into me. “Look at me, please.” He moaned into my lips as I pushed back at him.

I lifted my eyes to meet his, but every time he hit a different spot my eyelids would flutter and my eyes would nearly roll to the back of my head. He fucked me through my second orgasm, when I pressed my fingernails into the skin on his back and let out a moan followed by whimpers.

At some point I wasn’t able to keep my eyes on him and I kept squirming beneath him, arching my back as he was smashing his hips against mine, not giving me any time to recover, because I could feel another high approaching. “I’m going to cum again…” I managed to choke out.

“Come with me, baby,” Chris grunted, wrapping his arm around my waist to pull me closer to his body and go deeper inside. “Come on.”

My moans became longer as Chris fastened his pace, approaching climax. His grunts became more audible. We came together, both breathing loudly. Chris stopped supporting his body and laid down on me, which didn’t bother me. I put on hand on his waist and the other was trying to put some strands of hair back in place. Chris leaned down to kiss me again, but we couldn’t catch our breaths properly yet.

Without pulling out of me, he rolled us to lay next to each other, but with my body still wrapped against his.

“Welcome to the rest of our lives, Mrs. Evans.” He murmured against my head.

I smiled.


End file.
